Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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ve n though a lo t has changed in the last six months for Team H o nd a ' s Ricky Carmichael , everything pretty much stayed the same, so to speak. Since the end of last season a lot has gone on in RC's life : He underwent knee surgery and was forced to sit out the just -concluded AMA Supercross Series , where he was unable to defend his former number-one plate (and for him that's not an easy pill to swallow). He inke d a deal that has him moving on to another team for the 2005 season, and he also , over the down time, decided to make the big switch from two-stroke to four-stroke . But all that d idn't seem to faze the defending 250cc outdoor National Champion , who came roaring back as though nothing had hap pened, winning handedly both motes at the 36th Dirt Diggers Hangtown Class ic. Carmichael almost made the doublemoto wins look easy, as he looked right at ho me a nd quite smooth o n the big fourstroke, getting off to good starts in both motos and leading t he 40 -ri der pack across the start/finish area every time around the extremely fast, rough and hilly (no t to mention beautifully prepared) Hangtown track. But rather than sprinting out to big leads and then holding a comfortable gap throughout like he has done so many times in the past, Carmichael eased away from the field both times , opening up safe margins by the halfway point and then holding on to the finish. They were two very important w ins for the Honda pilot. " It was a good day for me, " Carmichael sa id. " It' s nice to come back to the outdoors. As bad as I wanted to w in today, [I) kind of [wanted to) make a statement - not to the riders - just to people who talk so much b.s . about thi ngs , jump to conclusions, and the lack of respect. You know, I had a lot to prove. It was important fo r m e to do what I d id today." E i Briefly..: ' Red Bull KTM's Grant Langston is still bothered by a hand ailment that forced him to pull out of the first 250cc mota and pre vent him from starting the second mota. Langston actually ran as high as fifth in the first mota before pullingoff on the seventh lap while runn ing sixth. According to Red Bull KTM team manager Larry Broo ks, Langston has been bothered by a sore hand that has been preventing him from gripping the bars properly. Langston started noticing the soreness in his hand a while back while training, and he turned to surgery to relieve the problem, but the surgery has 50 far not worked. Langston will have the hand looked at again and is hop ing he'll be ready for the next National at Mount Morris, Pennsylvania. in two weeks. Team Yamaha's lim Ferry had a day similar to that of Langston. Fe rry, who had major surgery to his broken wrist a while back, is still having prob lems with the wrist . After running as high as ninth, Ferry pulled out of the first mota two laps from the e nd after drop ping all the way back to 25th. He chose not to start the second rno to . "It's just not str ong enough," Ferry said. "I felt pretty good the first half of the mota, but it [ust couldn't take the landings any mo re . I was running out of the points , so I just pulled offand decided not to ride the second mota. It should be better for Mount Morris ." Carmichael, however, couldn't relax the entire time. He d id feel some pressure early on in both motos from a somewhat unlikely source - David Vuillemin. While many people were expecting fellow Honda CRF450R rider Kevin Windham to give Carmichael a hard time at Hangtown, it was instead Vuillemin, on the factory-backed Yamaha YZ4S0F, who kep t Carmichael honest through out both moto. Like Carmichael, Vuille m in's starts were lightning qu ick but just no t qu it e as quick as RC's in either moto. In the first moto, Vuillemin kept pace with Carmichael for almost half of the race before d ropping back ever so slight ly. Vuillemin eventually fell back to two seconds, then four seconds, and then nine seconds, at which time he began feeling some pressure from behind. That pressure came fro m Win dham, who had come up from a third-place ge taway to start dogging the Yamaha rider. Vuillemin put up a go od fight, tho ugh, as New amateur recru it Josh Grant, riding an AmsoiVChaparral Honda CRF250R in the I25cc class, showed up for his first National Motocross ready to race . After his excellent showing at this year's World Mini Grand Prix, Grant came to Hangtown and won his preliminary heat race. In the first I25cc rnoto , Gran t grabbed the holeshot and pulled out to a comfortable lead. Then he made a "roo kie" mistake, when he stalled his bike in a tum and was unable to get it going again, at least for a while. By the time he got his bike running again, he was a lap down on the entire field. In the second moto, Grant didn't get as good of a jump, coming out of the gate in fifth place: however, that didn't last long either. He wen t down hard on a diffi cult drop -off jump and was forced to drop out of the race. The 250cc class was pretty much evenly split between 250cc two-strokes and 450cc four-strokes, but the four-strokes had the advantage by a few bikes. While some riders made the switch (rom two-stroke to four-stroke for the out door Nationa ls, Damon Huffman was one of the few (if not the o nly)who made the switch fro m four-stroke to two- stroke follow ing the AHA 5upercross Series (Huffman and the Blackfoo t Honda team will be two-strokemounted for the upco ming Canadian Nationals.) Huffman finished eighth overall. "It's been a long time since I rode a 30minute mota, and I've only ridden the twostroke abou t 10 times," Huffman said. "But, you know, I like it a lot. I feel like I can ride it more aggressively I'm adapting to it . quickly, and I really like racing it." In the I25cc class, however, the fourContinued on page '5 www.cyclenews.com CYCLE NEWS • MAY 26, 2004 13