Round 1
MOTOCROSS
35th, but by the end of the second lap, he
was in 16th. As he was going for 15th,
however, he got pushed off the track
while trying to pass Suzuki rider Clark
Stiles. Stewart went flying over the bars,
hit the ground hard and had to start his
charge all over again. Stewart got back up
in 26th this time and would get as far as
sixth before the checkered flag came out.
Meanwhile, up front, Carmichael
maintained a comfortable pace and eased
away from Vuillemin, while Reed worked
his way around Preston for third. At the
finish, Carmichael took the checkered flag
47.025 seconds ahead of Vuillemin, who
held a comfortable lead on Reed for second. Preston held on to a distant fourth,
while Estonian rider Juss Laansoo, aboard
the Motosport Outlet/White Brothers
Honda, rode to an impressive fifth.
Following Stewart across the line in seventh was Ferry, who finished just ahead of
Suzuki rider John Dowd,
Kawasaki's Michael Byrne
and Yamaha's Heath Voss.
Oehlhof, who had started
the race in fourth,
dropped back to I Itho
Windham finished 21 st, on
position out of the points.
The second moto got
off to a far more
interesting start
with Carmichael
nailing
the
May 22,2005
~
AMA 2S0cc Motocross Championship Series Presented by FMF
holeshot ahead of Reed, Windham,
Stewart and Ferry. But Carmichael still
pulled away. The Suzuki rider eased away
from Reed, who had his hands full with
Windham.
Windham worked on Reed for the
first three laps before getting around
the Yamaha rider, but by that point,
Carmichael had already opened up an
I I-second lead. While pulling away
from Reed, Windham managed to
match Carmichael's pace for many laps
until cooling it a bit and ultimately letting him go.
"I kind of got stuck in no-man's land
and got really, really bored," Windham
said. "I was just riding around, Ricky was
gone and Chad was back there a good
ways - there was no threat for me in
either direction. Ricky put in some really
strong laps in the beginning. He fell into a
pace which I was able to match, but he
already had the cushion that he needed."
Carmichael went on to take his second
moto win of the day with over 30 seconds
to spare, wrapping up his fourth
win at the Hangtown circuit. It
was also his fourth straight
year of winning the
opening round of the
series.
Stewart,
meanwhile, hung with Reed in
fourth for a while, but
I instead of attacking, he
18 JUNE 1,2005 • CYCLE NEWS
