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/128152
- . -" -'"I - ' AMAlEA Sports Supercross Series ". w .~ • ~ ~ ~~ Round 14: Texas Stadium 'supercross'" ---- By KIT PALMER PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN IRVING, TX, APR. 20 icky Carmichael doesn't like making mistakes, but when he does screw up, like last week at the Pontiac Supercross, where he amateurishly looped out his factory Honda and threw away a likely victory, he's quick to make up for it and, more importantly, learn from it. This time at Dallas, there were no screwups. Instead, Carmichael rode one of the best supercross races of his career, and it wasn't necessarily because he was the fastest rider on the track, but because he was the smartest. Even Carmichael admitted that he wasn't the fastest rider out there this night. No, that honor went to Yamaha's David Vuillemin, who posted the quickest time in the heat races, and posted the fastest lap time during the 20-lap main event, as he reeled in leader 24 MAY 1, 2002' cue • e Carmichael, who was riding the allblack, Scorpion King-clothed Honda (see Briefly ... ). But when the chips were down, Carmichael simply outwitted Vuillemin to record his ninth win of the series and the 24th of his career. The Dallas race was very reminiscent of this year's Indy Supercross, where Vuillemin ran down Carmichael and passed him on the last lap to take the win, but Carmichael wasn't going to let that ending happen again; this time he had a better battle plan and eventually out-dueled Vuillemin to the wire to put himself in a position to wrap up his second supercross title at the penultimate round of the series next week at Salt Lake City. All Carmichael has to do to clinch the title next week is to finish ahead of the former series leader, Vuillemin, and the title will be his. Carmichael leaves Dallas with a 27point advantage over Vuillemin with two rounds to go. n e _ os "I might not have been the fastest guy tonight, but I was the smartest," Carmichael said. "I wore him down tonight. I saw Cobra [Vuillemm] coming up behind me, and I go, 'Ah oh, here we go, another repeat of Indy.' I said, 'I ain't going down like that - I want to go out winning.' I put the hammer down the last few laps." After finishing a close second to Carmichael at Dallas, pretty much aIJ that Vuillemin could do was think back to the Daytona Supercross, which he was forced to sit out with an injured shoulder that he suffered the week before, handing Carmichael 25 free points. Had Vuillemin not given up that advantage, he could very well be just two or three points behind Carmichael - not 27. Finishing third at Dallas and finding his way to the podium for the second week in a row was Bud Light Yamaha's Jeremy McGrath. The seven-time champ reeled off one of his classic McGrath holeshots and led for over three laps before getting passed by Carmichael. A few laps later, McGrath gave way to VuiJIemin, but that would be all. McGrath rode well, though he was just a half-stride off the pace being set by Carmichael and Vuillemin. He ended up taking the checkered flag some four or so seconds behind Vuillemin, but more importantly, five positions ahead of Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Ezra Lusk, who was just three points behind McGrath in their battle for third place in the standings. McGrath managed to stretch that gap to 10 points with two races left.