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Fourth overall went to Murrieta, California's Casey Johnson, with his solid 66 ride, followed by Johnson's Team
SplitFire/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki teammate Nicholas Wey, who rounded out
the top five with his 5-8 performance.
Primal Impulse/Bill's Pipes/Answer /
Factory Connection Suzuki rider Ryan
Huffman was sixth (8-7), Noleen/Thor/
K2-sponsored Tim Ferry finished seventh (7-9), and Tea,m Moto XXX/Pro
Grip/Simi Valley' Cycles' Michael Brandes was eighth (16-4). Carmichael, who
went 28-2, finished ninth overall and
wa , wlderstandably, a little disappointed about the way his day turned out.
"1 feel all right," said Carmichael.
'Tm still kind of upset about the DNF,
but you can't do anything about that.
I'm just going to go home and work
hard to get ready for Red Bud."
Huffman's Primal Impulse Suzuki
teammate Robbie Reynard, who has yet
to be able to string together two good
motos this season, rounded out the top
10 overall with 2-34 moto finishes.
MOTOONE
The rain subsided briefly as the riders began to line up for the opening
moto of the day. Carmichael, who chose
to start all the way to the inside of the
40-rider fjeld, shot from the pa ved
Southwick starting pad and led the
charge into the sweeping right-handed
first turn, closely pursued by Button,
Dowd, Team Honda/Fox's Steve Lamson, and Brandes. Honda of Troy's Mike
Brown, Danny Smith of the
fMF/Honda/Thor squad and new
Team Stiffie/Westwood/GP Sports
rider Brian Deegan went down together
in the first turn, rejoining the race well
behind the pack.
As the leaders appeared from the
wooded back section of the track for the
first lime, it was Carmichael with a foursecond advantage, chased by Button,
Dowd, Suzuki-mounted privateer James
Brothers, Johnson, Weyand Sheak. Suddenly absent from the lead pack was
Lamson, who crashed out of contention
early on the first lap. ,
"I hit a soft spot on one of the downhills in the back section and went over
the handlebars pretty hard," Lamson
explained. "My bike had me pinned up
against one of the banks, so everyone
was pretty much by me before I could
get going."
Despite aggravating a shoulder-andcollarbone injury suffered several
months ago, Lamson soldiered on to firtish the race but was unable to compete
in the second moto.
With Carmichael leading by about
five seconds, Dowd went to work on
Button for the runner-up position, taking the spot on the deeply whooped-out
finish-line straight as the riders began
their second lap. With Carmichael now
clearly within his sights, Dowd mounted an aggres ive charge for the lead,
taking the position from Carmichael as
the dueling pair began to encounter lappers just before the beginning of the
fifth jap.
"I took an outside line coming out of
the corner and Ricky took the inside and
got messed up in a ru t or something,"
Do""d said of tHe pass. "We didn't really
get together or anything. I just kind of
motored on by."
The two title rivals, separated by a
just a few bike lengths, went at it for the
top spot, eventually pulling out to a 15second lead on the steady Button, who
was in third. Jolmson was fourth, followed by an extremely fast and aggressive Reynard, who charged into fifth
after starting the moto just inside the top
10.
Just before the two-lap board came
out, disaster struck Carmichael, as his
bike suddenly quit on a fast downhill
portion of the track. Carmichael was
finally able to restart the machine, but
the Kawasaki cut out again just a few
turns later, causing him to case the
track's very technical infield double
jump. With the AMA's Duke Finch
overseeing the incident to prevent the
frustrated rider from receiving outside
assistance from the Pro Circuit mechanics, Carmichael tried in vain to again
restart the dead machine, which had
reportedly blown a head gasket. After
several minutes of trying, Carmichael
was unable to get the bike to light off
and suffered his first-ever mechanicalrelated DNF.
With heavy rain now falling, Dowd
crossed the finish line for the win. Reynard was second wi th his incredible
charge to the front, followed by Bullon,
Sheak and Wey, who rounded out the
top five.
MOTOTWO
Dowd made short work of the second moto as the extremely motivated
rider, who gated further inside this time,
blasted to the holeshot and immediately
pulled out to a three-second lead on
Sheak. Bu lion was again third, followed
by Carmichael and Brandes. With track
conditions deteriorating rapidly,
Carmichael, who was the only rider 'in
the moto to still consistently jump the
large infield double, moved around
both Button and Sheak to take over the
runner-up spot before the end of the
(Above left) Ricky Carmichael's
bike quit running while dicing
with Dowd for the lead in the
. first moto. "R.C." came back
and got second in the final
moto. On the day, though, Dowd
pulled 28 points on Carmichael.
(Above).Jimmy Button was
dealt a pair of threes for second
overall.
(Right) Scott Sheak went 4-5 for
third overall.
first lap. Carmichael began to
charge at Dowd but couldn't
make up the 10-second lead to
which the flying Yamaha pilot
had pulled out. With the top
three solidly established, the
hard-charging Brandes began'
to hound Sheak for fourth, taking the spot just before the
halfway point. On unlucky lap
13, Dowd, who had amassed a
20-second lead on the mudcovered Carmichael, suffered a
scary moment when he
dropped his bike in a deeplyrulled bowl turn.
"I knew I had a pretty good lead by
that time," Dowd said, "so I was just
hoping that my bike would start okay."
The crowd cheered wildly for the
hometown hero as Dowd went on to
take the decisive moto win and overall
victory. Dowd responded to the incr.edible show of support he received from
the fans by taking a victory lap as supporters and well-wishers jumped the
fences and lined the side of the track to
congratulate the new 125cc points leader
on a fantastic performance.
L~
MX338
Southwick, Massachusetts
Results: June 14, 1998 (Round 4 of 12)
125 MOTO 1: 1. John Dowd (Yam); 2. Robbie
Reynard (Suz); 3. Jimmy Button (Yam); 4. -SCott Sheak
(Hon); S. icholas Wey (Kaw); 6. Casey Johnson (Kaw);
7. Tim Feny (Yam); 8. Ryan Huffman (So2); 9. Stephane
Ronc.... da (Hon); 10. Brock Sellards (Hon); 11. Paul
Cu,me (Kaw); 12. Nathan Ramsey (Kaw); 13. Robbie
Horton (KTM); 14. Kelly Smith (KTM); 15. Barry
Carsten (SU2.); 16. Mike Brandes (Suz); 17. Shaun Perotio
(Suz); 18. Jeffrey Willow (Suz); 19. James. Povolny
(KTM); 20. Jason McConnick (Hon); 21. Buddy Antune:!.
(502); 22. WaUy Silva (Yam); 23. Ryan Clark (Kaw); 24.
Chad Sanner (Kaw); 25. James Brothers (502); 26. Danny
Smith (Han); 27. Scott Davis (502); 28. Ricky Carmichael
(Kaw); 29. Michael Brown (Han); 30. Patrick Barton
(502); 31. Steve Lamson (Hon); 32. Jeff Baker Jr. (Kaw);
33. Ryan Duff (Hon); 34. Scott Carter (Kaw); 35. Jeff
Doan Jr. (Hon); 36. Casey Lytle (Han); 37. Robbie
Skaggs (Yam); 38. Brian Deegan (Kaw); 39. Travis
Preston (5uz); 40. Terry Finkle (Yam).
125 MOTO 2: 1. John Dowd (Yam); 2. Ricky
Carmichael (Kaw); ;3. Jimmy Button (Yam); 4. Michael
Brandes (Suz); 5. Scott Sheak (Hon); 6. Casey Johnson
(Kaw); 7. Ryan Huffman (Sul); 8. icholas Wey (Kaw);
9. Tim Ferry (Yam); 10. Robbie Skaggs (Yam); 11. Danny
Smith (Hoo); 12. Paul Currie (1(aw); 13. Kelly Smith
(KTMl; 14. Jeff Willoh (Suz); IS. Brock Sella,ds (Hon);
16. Brian Deegan (Kaw); 17. Robbie Horton (J