Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

McGrath, Carmichael is the most popular rider in the paddock, especially among the young fans. Their adulatjon is returned in kind. Carmichael signs autographs relentlessly before the race and, even after an off night in Pontiac, and despite frigid temperatures in the pits, Carmichael accommodated everyone who stopped by. If there is a future after Jeremy McGrath, Carmichael will certainly be a part of it, but he shouldn't be rushed. Coming into the season, his goal was a top-five finish for the year, He, and the team, knew it was a big step, and, at 19, he has plenty of time to mature. When he didn't win instantly, there was added pressure. And when he did well, there was the pressure of doing better. The transition of moving to supercross has been tougher than he thought it would be, he admitted during an interview in the back of the Kawasaki transporter just before the Pontiac race. "I've always struggled in supercross, compared to outdoors," Carmichael said over the beat of alternative rock music blaring through the' semi's speakers. '1 d.on't know why. It's just more of a struggle for me. I'm just struggling." The struggles have been public ones, and he accepts that. And he accepts the expectations that his move up brought. "Maybe there was too much buildup, but that comes with the territory of being a champion and coming into a premier class. They expect you to do good. All my sponsors, Kawasaki's been working with me. They're giving me chances. My time will come." What it takes is confidence. Carmichael knows how to win races, and he knows how to win championships. 'Tm thinking once I can get that confidence level up (to the level) I had at the beginning of the year, I F Ricky Carmichael has not yet won a 250cc main, but that shouldn't last for long. At just 19 years of age, Carmichael has a long and promising career ahead of him. By Henny Ray Abrams icky Carmichael is a victim of his own success. Coming into the 1999 supercross season, the 19-year-old Kawasaki rider was riding high. In the first half of 1998, Ricky Carmichael won his second consecutive 125cc East Region Supercross title, taking all eight races and capping the year with a win in the East-West Shootout at the season finale in Las Vegas. In the second half of the year, he won the 125cc outdoor National Motocross title, after having finished third in the series in 1997. Of the 24 motos, he won 12, taking eight overalls in the process. At one point he ran off a string of six victories in a row. The Roridian was named Rookie of the Year in 199(;, his first professional season after a sterling amateur career in which he won nine AMA Amateur National Championships and 67 titles overall. But this was a big step. In 1999, the redheaded racer was moving up to the 2S0cc supercross class, a jump in both the size of the machine and the level of the talent. Having succeeded so well to this point, expectations were great - and why not? Through his first three professional seasons, Carmichael had won 28 of the 4S races he'd entered, an impressive 6S-percent win ratio. By the second race of the season, it was clear that he couldn't sustain that ratio of success. After taking sixth in his debut at Anaheim, Carmichael crashed in San Diego after hitting a rut. The injuries would keep him out for three weeks, and on his return, at his hometown race in Tampa, he was impressive, leading for four laps before his lack of stamina caught up to him. He missed the podium by one spot. The next race was in Atlanta and he crashed in a tough whoop section, ending up 14th. In Dallas he was ninth - another off night. Then came a resurgent fourth at Daytona, a track more like an outdoor than a supercross. Following that, he had a crash during practice in Houston, which put him out for the night. Then came an 18th in Minneapolis, a sixth in St. Louis, and an 11th in Pontiac. He did this on tracks he wasn't wild abou t. "The tracks, I think, are kind of one-line," he said. "I think they could be a little bit . better - have more 180-degree turns instead of 90-degree turns." Regardless of his results, ~s popularity remains undiminished. Next to Jeremy R 38

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