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AMA EA Sports Supercross Series Round 13: Pontiac Silver 0 BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN PONTIAC, MI, APR 13 ormally, you can't crash out of an AMAlEA Sports Supercross and still win. Or finish second and nearly win. But the Pontiac Spercross was anything but a normal race. Anything that could happen, did. There were stalls and crashes, comefrom-behind runs, riders fading, and three different leaders, all on big-bore four-strokes. It was as exciting as it was unpredictable, and in the end, it was a very popular win for American Honda's Nathan "Nate Dog" Ramsey, who came from the last-chance qualifier and a spill early in the final to take his first-ever supercross win, the first ever for Honda's CRF450R, and the second-ever for a four-stroke, all before a crowd of 58,920 in the Pontiac Silverdome. "Everything was perfect," the 27year-old Ramsey said after winning. "I felt great. I heard the crowd. I was 10 APRIL 24, 2002' cue I • e hoping they'd just be quiet a little bit, quit hyping up whoever was coming [from] behind." Coming from behind was his teammate Ricky Carmichael. The champ was in second place on the second lap when he landed vertically off a double jump, bailing off the back of the CR250, then pitching face-first into the dirt. The Floridian quickly remounted back in 15th place, the visor from his helmet wedged into his chin piece. "That was a stupid, amateur mistake I made," Carmichael said. "That was a bad move on my part." Never quitting, the championship leader set out on an inspired charge that would carry him to the podium. It helped that several others were also fighting gravity. Taking advantage of the gaffes, Carmichael moved into second on the 17th of 20 laps, only to run out of time. Ramsey's margin of victory was 1.867 seconds. "You guys got your money's worth tonight," Carmichael told the crowd. n __ s "That was a tough one." Third place went to Bud Light Yamaha's Jeremy McGrath, in what he felt was his best ride of the year. McGrath, who's been bothered with arm problems for much of the season, was the only frontrunner to not fall, though he was forced to stop when Ramsey went down. It was his second podium finish of the season. "I'm just so happy I put 20 laps together," McGrath said. "We've been struggling all year. I think I finally had a breakthrough race. I think this is it." Yamaha's David Vuillemin was a disconsolate fourth. With Carmichael completing the third lap in 17th place, this was Vuillemin's chance to make up ground in the championship, but he couldn't. Instead, on the seventh lap, Vuillemin fell into hay bales that guarded the left side of entrance to the tunnel under the finish jump. The spill left him empty, and the Frenchman could do no better than fourth after getting passed by Carmichael on the 13th of 20 laps. Despite a last-ehance quallftcatlon and a main-event crash, Nate Ramsey (25) scored the first win of his career. It was also the first SX win for the Honda CRF4!50R and the second-ever win for a four-stroke. David Vuillemln (12) finished fourth. "I just rode tired and not very good," Vuillemin said. "So that's why Jeremy passed me and Ricky passed me toward the end." With three races remaining, Carmichael leads Vuillemin, 281 to 257. McGrath is third at 198. Fifth went to Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Stephane Roncada, another rider who didn't fall, though he watched as other riders did. "It was weird, a very weird race," Roncada said after finishing just over a second behind countryman Vuillemin. "Look at Ramsey. He was all the way down there [at the end of the start gate], the worst possible place. He gets a decent start, he crashes; somehow he comes back