Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Suzuki's Kevin Windham (14) led the first flye laps before finishing out the race in fifth. Here, he's being pursued by .Jeremy McGrath (1). But while McGrath, LaRocco, Lusk and Windham tried to decide whether or not they were happy about their Houston rides, Carmichael knew he was happy, even more so than usual. "I love winning like that." Carmichael said aloud, but to no one in particular, as he climbed into his Chevy Trucks Kawasaki team rig moments after comjng from behind to record his ninth win of the season. Carmichael started out the race in sixth place, and things looked bleak for the Kawasaki rider, since the five riders ahead of him were riders who he would've just as soon not have seen in front of him - guys like Windham, Lusk, McGrath, Tim Ferry and the hard-to-pass privateer Heath Voss. Luckily for Carmichael, he didn't have to worry too much about laRocco or Sebastien Tortelli, neither of whom got particularly great jumps out of the gate. But Carmichael went to work right away, wasting little time passing the riders ahead of him, despite riding with a sore thumb that he had injured in an earlier heat-race crash. He quickly took care of Voss, then Ferry, then Lusk, then McGrath, and finally Windham. Remarkably, it took Carmichael just six laps to pass them all, and once he did, the race for the win was all but over. Carmichael, on his Chad Watts-tuned KX250, opened up a modest lead and was never really challenged the rest of the way, officially taking the win 2.820 seconds ahead of McGrath, but not before slowing on the last lap. "When you pull the holeshot and then just check out, you kind of wonder, 'Man, is it just luck?'" Carmichael said. "I mean it's not really luck, but it's good to come from behind like that sometimes because it mentally helps you. [Tonight] I won fair and square, and that was all my race. I beat all the heavy hitters, and I passed them all and pulled away, and there's no better way to win than that." Rounding out the top 10 at Houston was Ferry, Tortelli, MotoworldRacing.comjAnswer's Damon Huffman, Voss and The EdgeSports.com Kawasaki's Michael Byrne. Not only was Carmichael happy about winning in Houston but, he was certainly thrilled about gaining three more valuable points on defencUng champ McGrath. With five rounds left in the series, Carmichael leads McGrath by a commanding 32 points, 267-235. As it stands now, Carmichael has a realistic shot of clinching the title at the second-to-Iast round in Salt Lake City, Utah, April 21. Enjoying a solid spot in third is laRocco with 211 points, followed by Windham with 179 and Lusk with 174. of crafty moves just after the first turn and somehow managed to come out of it okay, in third place. "I just hooked in behind Windham and Lusk, and it worked," McGrath said. Windham set the pace early on, leading Lusk, McGrath, Ferry, Carmichael, Voss and laRocco around the technical Houston track. Windham tried to sprint away and actually found some success, only to have the lead group catch back up to him. Meanwhile, Carmichael, who had immediately gotten around Voss, had no intentions of hanging out in fifth for very long. He quickly made his move on Ferry, diving undemeath the four-stroke rider on the first lap. Ferry actually saw him coming on the inside and lifted his leg as Carmichael went by him. On the next lap, McGrath made his move on Lusk, stuffing him for second. "I kind of put a little bit of a stuff on him [Lusk]," McGrath said. "But I didn't mean to. I went inside of him and then, when I was just going to take off, my rear wheel slid out and. kjnd of smashed into him." Carmichael saw his chance and followed McGrath right around Lusk as well, making the new order: Windham, McGrath, Carmichael and Lusk. The race now was for second between McGrath and Carmichael. Carmichael kept nipping at McGrath's heals for the next couple of laps and fmally saw a small opening and went for it. Carmichael ran up inside the seven-time Supercross Champion in a tight left-hand turn, passed him, and then quickly changed his attention to Windham, who was right in front of him. "I Made a pretty aggressive pass on him [McGrath]: Carmichael said. "You kind of had to because the track wasn't that good for passing." Windham tried picking up his pace, but Carmichael was just too much for him, and everybody else on the track, for that matter. Carmkhael executed a nice inside pass on Windham, taking over the lead for good. The Kawasaki rider would open up a modest lead and was never really threatened the rest of the way, though he did have problems getting around lappers. McGrath (1) got hung up In traffic and had a hard time getting around Windham en route to a second-place finish. Mike laRocco (5) gave him a IltUe bit of a run at the end. MAIN The 20-lap feature really didn't start out all that well for Carmkhael, who came out of the first couple of turns in sixth place; nor was it much better for McGrath, who locked handlebars with Byrne just a few yards into the race and got swallowed up by the pack from both sides. McGrath, however, was able to make a couple cu cle n e _ s • APRIL 4, 2001 7

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