·Cky Carmichael is certainly proving to be the dominating force in
this year's supercross season. For the fourth time in fIVe races,
including the opening two rounds of the FIM THQ World Supercross GP Series in Canada, Carmichael has taken the checker
flag while out in front and pulling away. last week in Phoenix, he
had some 10 seconds on Kevin Windham, and this time at a dry Anaheim II
for round three of the AMA THQ Supercross Series (round fIVe of the FIM
Series), Carmichael had over 20 seconds to spare over defending champ
Chad Reed. And had it not been for a fall in the mud at Anaheim I while
cruising way out in front, Carmichael could very well have run away with
that one, too, and be five for fIVe right now. But he'll just have to settle with
four wins out of five tries, which is still quite impressive when you consider
the competition going into this year's series. And what's even more impressive is that Carmichael has led 44 main-event laps of the 52 run in the AMA
Series so far, and 84 of 92 if you include the two Canadian THQ World
Supercross GP rounds.
Even though winning a 20-lap race by 20 seconds might seem a little dull,
this race was far from that - at least for a while.
In front of a sold-out Angel Stadium, a crowd of 45,050, the 20-lap main
event started out exactly how everyone had hoped, with both Carmichael
and Reed getting out in front early. Unfortunately, Kevin Windham, winner of
the Anaheim I mudfest and the only other rider on the track seemingly capable of running up front with RC and Reed right now, got bumped around in
the first tum and wasn't able to tag along - nor was another preseason
favorite, James "Bubba" Stewart, who was at home in Florida recuperating
from a broken arm that he sustained the previous week in Phoenix. But when
Carmichael led Reed and the rest of the pack out of the first tum, it was the
duel everyone had been waiting for - champ vs. past champ.
Even though Reed, as well as Kawasaki's Michael Byrne, might've beaten
everyone to the first turn, it was Carmichael on his Mike Gosselaar-tuned
Suzuki who emerged out of the hard left-hander in the lead.
"I got lucky tonight," Carmichael said of the start. "Chad, I think, was the
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