AMAIChevy Trucks 250cc U. S. Motocross Championship
Round 5: Budds Creek
BY STEVE Cox
PHOTOS BY STEVE BRUHN
BaDDS CREEK, MD, JaNE 15
U'e may not have won every moto
.-Iso far this year as he did last
year, but Ricky Carmichael is blowing
up the 250cc Nationals again. When
he crashes or messes up, the worst
he's done is finish second, whereas
when his main title competitors Kevin Windham, Chad Reed and
Timmy Ferry - have had bad races,
they've finished much further back.
Only five races into the 12-round
series, Carmichael already sits 53
points ahead of second place in the
championship . that's a one-round
buffer less than halfway through the
season.
If he continues putting up results
like he has· and there's no indication
yet that he'll stop • it could make for
a long seven rounds for all but
Carmichael himself.
"I think we definitely need to get
up there and charge at Ricky," Windham said. "Tim [Ferry] won that first
moto, and he was down with me [in
the first turn] there in the second
moto. We're kind of getting the moto
wins, but no one's getting the overalls
[besides Carmichael]. We need to get
up there and challenge him a little bit
and keep it interesting. I know he
likes the challenge, and so do we."
It looked like Carmichael actually
8
JUNE 25. 2003'
cue I e
had the holeshot. at the start of the
first moto, but instead he swung wide,
and Windham shot up the inside and
through the dogleg for the lead, followed by Ferry, Stephane Roncada,
Carmichael and Mike LaRocco. Roncada got by Ferry right off, and
LaRocco went by Carmichael temporarily. Both Ferry and Carmichael
rebounded back by, and the second
lap ended with the top four - Windham, Ferry, Roncada and Carmichael
- all within a second of one another. LaRocco, however, didn't come
around right away.
"I jumped just a little bit off the
main line, and I landed in the mud,
and it slung me over the bars,"
LaRocco said. "That was the end of
that. It kind of stopped when I landed,
and my momentum carried me over. I
had a good start; I just ruined it."
LaRocco's crash left Reed fifth
pretty much by himself while the top
four battled it out among themselves.
The first to make a move was Yamaha's Ferry, who stuffed his 450 inside
Windham's in an off-camber left
before they passed the first turn. In
the same turn, same lap, Roncada
bobbled and went over the berm,
allowing Carmichael into third.
Entering the same turn yet again
on the next lap, Windham hit a kicker
and was thrown over the berm and
into the soft stuff, which put
Carmichael into second, and Roncane""s
