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AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Motocross Championship Series Round 8: Washougal MX Park 250cc outdoor National overall since August 29, 1999, at Binghamton, and, as you can imagine, the former Cajun was ecstatic about ending his winless streak. "It feels great, it's been a long time - a very long time," a relieved Windham said. "I just need to keep what I got going. I've been putting the small pieces together, and it finally paid off. Now I've got to figure out what it took and how to keep it going. "I'm very excited," Windham added. "This is exactly what I wanted By KIT PALMER PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN WASHOUGAL, WA, JULY 29 evin Windham finally got that winless monkey off his back with a convincing victory at Washougal MX Park. The Team Suzuki rider looked like the Windham of old as he tracked down series leader Ricky Carmichael in both motos, passed him, and ran off with a double-moto sweep. The win was long in coming for Windham, who hadn't won a K 26 AUGUST 8, 2001 • cue I e n e _ so Kevin Windham was impressive in Washougal. The factory Suzuki rider chased down Ricky Carmichael in both motos, passed him, and ran off with a perfect 1·1 tally on the day. his first overall outdoor win since August 29,1999. to do. You can't beat the way it happened for me today. Both motos I had to pass Ricky and had [Tim] Ferry and everybody right there. I can't even really explain it. It's nice to come off the track and have that many people smiling over an overall, because it's been a long time for everyone who's put in a lot of work and put in a lot of support behind me. I'm definitely happy. Hopefully, this is the start of something good." Unfortunately for Windham, though, the win probably comes too late in the series for him to do anything about <;armichael, who still owns a commanding points lead with only three rounds left to go. After winning the last five rounds, Carmichael still enjoys a 42-point lead over Windham, and when the series resumes in two weeks at Millville, Minnesota, the defending champ will be heading to Carmichael's favorite track on the circuit. At Washougal, Carmichael certainly had his chances to take home the overall win. He led in both motos, but Windham was just too fast for even the four-time National MX Champion to handle. Carmichael crossed the finish line in second place in both motos, and both times was very close to Windham. "There're just some things I just need to iron out with myself, and I think I need to improve the bike a little bit," Carmichael said. "I don't think that it's working good for me. I saw a bunch of places where I was losing time; there were places on the track I could've done but I wasn't able to - lines I wasn't able to take, [because] I don't think my bike was allowing me. But Kevin was on today. It was boiling up; he hasn't won a race in a long time. I still got a nice points lead, and I'm definitely looking forward to Millville. It's just like my track - the clay and the sand - and that race was pretty easy for me last year. I'm going to go there, give 110 percent and see what we can do. "Overall, I still feel good - I just need to start winning," Carmichael added. "I can do it, I just have some problems I need to take care of." The only other rider even close to Windham and Carmichael's pace at Washougal was Team Yamaha's Tim Ferry. In the first moto, Ferry was a part of a three-rider breakaway and was threatening to make a move when he got doused by a face-full of roost, some of which ended up inside his goggles. He was forced to pull them off and ride the second half of the moto bare-faced, and as a result, he lost ground to the two leaders, finishing a distant third.