AMA EA Sports Supercross Series
Round 1 1 : Reliant Astrodome
By CHRIS JONNUM
PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN
HOUSTON, TX, MAR. 23
~ tarring a 250cc-c1ass podium of
t;;))Floridian Ricky Carmichael,
native Alabaman Nathan Ramsey and
Georgian Ezra Lusk (not to mention
125cc-class winner Matt Walker, of
Georgia), the post-race press conference in Houston featured more twang
than the Grand 01' Opry, as Southerners absolutely ruled the event, and
with all the "seen-'im-comin'"s,
"backed-'er-down"s and "danged-ifI"s being tossed around, a reporter
could be forgiven for thinking he was
6
APRIL 3, 2002'
cue
I
•
at a Talladega NASCAR race (or perhaps a Texas hoedown). But this is
indeed Supercross, a sport in which
the South is apparently on the rise.
The Carmichael win was, of course,
no surprise, representing, as it does,
the Team Honda rider's fifth in a row
and seventh of the season (it also
moved him into a tie with Bob Hannah for secord - behind Jeremy
McGrath - on the all-time SX/MX win
list, at 64). What was noteworthy was
that the champ needed nearly half
the race to get around his fourstroke-mounted teammate, as Ramsey rode absolutely amazingly on his
way to his first-ever 250cc podium.
n
e
_
s
"It's been real close a couple of
times," Ramsey said. "I've just been
trying to put in some hard laps during
the week and do the hard work like
everybody's talking about. If you do
your homework, then the weekend's
supposed to be the easy time for you.
I've been picking myself up off the
ground a little bit - just little glitches
for myself, mentally - and that's no
fun for anybody."
AlsD impressive was Lusk, who
despite suffering in previous days
from food-poisoning (he went to the
hospital and then sat out Friday's
practice), recovered from an early
crash to charge to third place - the
Chevy Trucks Kawasaki rider's second podium of the season.
"I just woke up Thursday morning,
and it hit me," Lusk said. "It's kind of
gross for me to say it - I won't. Let's
just say everything in my body was
out, every which way it could be. I
just took a free trip to the hospital
and was there until 9:30 Thursday
night. I decided not to ride [practice]
yesterday and to try and save all the
energy that I had."
David Vuillemin, on the other
hand, posted his first non-podium finish (in races he started) of the year,
though he came close - advancing to
fourth after clashing with McGrath
