Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128100
AMAlEA Spor-ts Supercross Series Round 13: Pontiac Silverdome Ricky Cannichael put his Chevy Trucks Kawasaki into the winner's circle for the 11th time this season. His latest win at the Pontiac Silverdome was his 10th straight. too good for me, but I put my head down in that main event and got it done," Carmichael said after closing in on his first Supercross title by stretching his championship points lead over Mazda Yamaha's Jeremy McGrath, who was fourth with a mechanical problem, to 46 points with three races to go. "We got three more races and, if 1 can stay healthy, hopefully I' can win this title." The heat-race crash, which came as he was leading American Honda's By HENNY RAY ABRAMS PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN PONTIAC, MI, APR. 7 eam Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Ricky Carmichael took the Motor City by storm, bouncing back from a heat-race tumble to lead every lap in the final and score his 10th win in a row, and 11 th overall, before a Pontiac Silverdome record crowd of 61,728. "I pulled my groin muscle when I crashed, and things weren't looking T 14 APRIL 18. 2001 • cue • e n __ s Ezra Lusk on the final lap, was a rare sign of his fallibility. In the main, American Suzuki's Kevin Windham beat him for the holeshot money, but Carmichael took the point a corner later and was unmatchable. "I knew Ezra [Lusk] was hauling butt through the whoops all day long and I knew I had to figure something out," Carmichael said. "But 1 had enough gap on him to where he couldn't latch on to me and I kept putting in the hard work during the race and won my 10th one." With three races left (Dallas, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas), Carmichael has 317 points to McGrath's 271. Once he moved into second place, on the seventh of 20 laps, Lusk was able to maintain about a five-second distance to Carmichael. Lusk was good through the whoops, making up for time that Carmichael was gaining elsewhere, but was never able to chip away. As the race progressed and the track became more one-lined, lappers came into play, and Lusk's drive was stalled. He backed off to finish second by 10.90 seconds. "I rode with all the heart 1 had, I gave it all 1 had," Lusk said. "There toward the end, 1 got in with a lot of lappers and I was really having to chance it to try to go any faster. The last two laps I decided I better back it down because the guy&. were making it a little bit tough on me, but I'm sure they were doing the same thing to Ricky, but 1just felt like 1 should back it down a little bit." Amsoil/Doc Martens/Competition Accessories/Honda's Mike LaRocco had started well, though not as well as he'd started last week. "You'd think, after 30 years, I'd have figured it out earlier," LaRocco joked. "But I find out that's where you need to be to run with Ricky. Unfortunately, tonight he was a little bit quicker than I was. Ezra got by [on the fourth lap) and 1 dropped in behind, picked up a couple of lines, got by Windham which got another Honda on the podium." Windham had had a long night, crashing in his heat, and then taking second in the second semi. "I don't know," the Suzuki rider began. "It just felt like 1 was struggling a little bit tonight. When you're not riding 100 percent, you can tell when you're riding against Ricky and all those guys." He would finish fifth, dropped a spot to McGrath on the 16th lap and nearly losing fifth to Yamaha's Tim Ferry at the end. Ferry made a run at him in the final comer, as the two made contact, but Windham held his ground.