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/128135
By TEARDOWN PAUL CARRUTHERS R icky Carmichael didn't necessarily win our Rider of the Year award way back on the third of February, but that one night at Edison Field in Anaheim may have been the one that truly propelled him toward his incredible feats of 2001. To refresh your memory, that was the night Carmichael pulled off" what was thought to be an impossible feat: He started 10th and still caught and passed Supercross King Jeremy McGrath to win the Anaheim Supercross. Although Carmichael says that wasn't the turning point in the season, those in attendance would definitely argue that point. In the past, a McGrath lead generally translated into a McGrath runaway, as whoever was in second place would generally start peeking over his shoulder to see how far behind the third-placed rider was - a sure sign that second place was going to be good enough. Not so for Carmichael. The Floridian proved that night in Southern California that second place wasn't going to be good enough anymore. After that, things weren't really the same. Carmichael stormed toward the title, never losing another event along the way. At season's end, he'd won 14 of 16 Supercrosses, including 13 in a row. And then he went out and won the 250cc National Motocross Championship, winning 13 motos. He also freelanced at season's end, racing in the 125cc class at the Steel City National in order to break Mark Barnett's all-time 125cc win record of 25. Of course he did so, winning a moto and taking the overall. For the past few years in this space, I've devoted at least a paragraph or so to explaining why Carmichael wasn't our Rider of the Year. In 2000, Carmichael won the 250cc National Motocross title, but he still couldn't stop McGrath from winning the Supercross title, and that was enough for us to keep him from taking the award ... well, that and the fact that Kenny Roberts Jr. won the 500cc World Championship. This year, though, Carmichael did everything that he could and no one really came close to matching his performance, making him an easy choice to be the Cycle News 2001 Rider of the Year. But what of the others? A case could be made for Mat Mladin, with the Australian winning a third successive AMA Superbike Championship on his Yoshimura Suzuki. Mladin would have been a good choice after any of those three titles, but someone with a more impressive season has always thwarted him. Perhaps a fourth AMA Superbike crown may be enough to put Mladin on our cover next year as Rider of the Year. .. The same could be said for Valentino Rossi, the popular young Italian who has already reached the status of legend. After all, his resume now reads: 125cc World Champion, 250cc World Champion and 500cc World Champion, with his 500cc World Championship coming in what was the final season of the class as we know it. Next year, the four-strokes arrive, and it would be difficult to bet against Rossi becoming the first MotoGP World Champion under the new technical regulations. The kid is special, and it shows with his fan base haVing reached all the way over here, despite the fact that watching him on television is as close as most of us get to Grand Prix racing anymore. American road racing fans also feel a bit of a bond with Australian Troy Bayliss, the World Superbike Champion. After all, it was just a short time ago that he was at Daytona and ready for a season of AMA Superbike racing with Vance & Hines Ducati. Then Carl Fogarty was injured, and everything changed. Bayliss went to Ducati Corse and, after a rookie season in the class, emerged as this year's dominant rider. Bayliss is a good bloke, and another World Superbike Championship next year could very well earn him Rider of the Year - though many stateside World Superb ike fans are CDmlngupln Cycle News (DIm 128 JANUARY 2,2002' II: U II: I e n e ~ ... s obviously hoping for a Ben Bostrom or Colin Edwards title run in 2002. When you think of off-road racing in 2001, you think of Mike Lafferty and Destry Abbott - the two riders who were the most dominant in their respective series. Lafferty won the National Enduro crown while Abbott did likewise in the National Hare & Hound Series. Our last (and only) Rider of the Year who came from the off-road ranks was Ty Davis way back in 1994, and it took an epic effort that year for him to earn the honor. Chris Carr and Terry Poovey won dirt track championships in 2001, with Carr taking the AMA version while Poovey emerged as the Formula USA champ. Both did admirable jobs in doing so, but unfortunately this year's dirt track series will be known more for losses than for gains - with the death of Will Davis leaving a pall over dirt track racing that can only leave us hoping that next year brings more happiness than sorrow. Drag racing continues to gain in popularity and this year Angelle Savoie was dominant in winning her second straight NHRA Pro Stock Bike title, taking seven wins out of 14 events in a form of racing where the entire 16-rider field is often separated by just hundredths or thousandths of a second. Anyone can win, but she still managed to win half the races. Not bad. Savoie, like the rest, however, was still left standing in the long shadow cast by Carmichael, who perhaps for the first time in the history of our Cycle News Rider of the Year award was an inarguable choice. By now, Carmichael has been honored elsewhere with similar Rider of the Year accolades. We can only hope that the fact that he won our award over a horde of champions competing in every form of motorcycle racing all over the world is a bit more meaningful. There is also the chance that many of you will question (and write letters) the fact that Carmichael graces our cover wearing Honda gear after a season in which he dominated on a Kawasaki. We also questioned it, though we didn't have much choice in the matter. Because his deal with Honda was done so early and our Rider of the Year is chosen so late, Carmichael was a Honda man by the time Kinney Jones could shoot our cover in his studio. A Honda man through and through. He wore the gear he wanted to, and who were we to demand otherwise from our 2001 Cycle News Rider of the Year? eN • Supercross Preview Issue • 2002 Supercross Team Infonnation • Chad Reed Interview • WORCS Finale 30 YEARS ASD••• JAIIUARY 12, 1972 A giant pink helmet was used for the cover of Issue #50, along with a couple of miscellaneous pictures of motorcycles, motorcyclists and pit girls ... There were letters from Evel Knievel and Mert Lawwill in the same issue. Knievel was thanking everyone who was supporting his upcoming jumping contest, while Lawwill was just stating for the record that he favored the new national numbering system that allowed riders to be assigned a number for their career after a certain point of achievement.. We featured an article entitled "Does it cost more to 'get serious' than it does to play?" The article listed the prices of the equipment necessary for racing, and reads as follows: Racing motor-. cycle, $550; leathers, $60; gloves, $6; chest protector, $13: goggles, $5: helmet, $50: shoulder pads, $14: elbow pads, $10; AMA card, $7: district card, $3; entry fee, $3; silencer, $10: shin guards, $16: and boots, $40. 20 YEARS ABO... JAllUARY 13, 1982 A four-color reproduction of David B. Mattingly's poster flying High made up the cover of Issue #50. Although we presented the picture on the cover of our newspaper, the interpretation was left up to the readers... For the fourth year in a row, Louis McKey, the Phantom Duck of the Desert, was named Cycle News/West Rider of the Year. Bruce Penhall finished a close second, while Broc Glover and Eddie Lawson were also popular votes among Cycle News/West readers... We featured a series of "Hangin' out with..." stories, the first of which featured 1981 U.S. Road Racing Champion Dale Singleton at home in his cabin in Dalton, Georgia. One enlightening thing Singleton said was that before he goes to sleep, he likes to ·play my guitar and make up new songs about Elmer [Singleton's mascot pig] until I fall asleep." We also hung out with Mark Barnett on his grandma's 400-acre farm in Alabama, where he resided. 10 YEARS ABO••• JAIIUARY B, 1992 The new Honda NR750 was featured on the cover of Issue #50, and inside we explained why it was the most expensive production motorcycle ever made. It offered a claimed 130 hp at a claimed dry weight of just 298 pounds ... We interviewed 125cc National MX Champion /'o'Iike Kiedrowski at his home in the Southern Califomia desert. He said, "If you win, you're only king for a week. When you lose, you're back down to where you were before." He also said that his goal was to win a championship in every class, just like his teammate Jeff Ward had done... KTM's Danny Hamel wrapped up the Best in the Desert Grand Slam Championship Series title with his win at the Laughlin, Nevada, finale. Jimmy Lewis (KTM) finished second overall, first 250cc... Stefan Everts topped Jeromy Buehl and Jeff Matiasevich for the Genoa, Italy, Supercross win ... Jeff Stanton topped Guy Cooper, Larry Ward and Jeremy McGrath for the Geneva Supercross win in Switzeriand ... Sean Hamblin topped Brian McGavran for the 60cc (9-11 )-c1ass win at Perris Raceway. while Jiri Dostal won the 80cc J:iovice class.