Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

akita Suzuki's Ricky Carmichael continued his domination of the AMA 250cc National Motocross Championship with a runaway win at the beautiful Spring Creek Motocross Park facility in Millville, Minnesota. With the victory, Carmichael extended his amazing run of consecutive overall wins, the longest in AMA motocross history, to 24, and he is now nine for nine on the year. Carmichael also left Millville with a whopping 89-point lead in the series standings over round nine's second-place finisher, Amsoil/ChaparrallHonda's Kevin Windham. And with only three rounds remaining, he has all but closed the book on the 2005 outdoor season. '" like this track a lot," Carmichael said. "It's similar to my track at home in Florida, and it got pretty rough today, and the downhills got really choppy, but I liked it. I had a good week preparing for this event. I thought Bubba [Stewart] was going to be here, so I hung it out a little more, anticipating he that was going to be here." With leading contenders James Stewart and Chad Reed both sitting out the Millville event with injuries (see Briefly), Windham was charged with the task of keeping Carmichael honest, and it has been the Honda rider who has given Carmichael his only competition as of late. But as the season progresses, Carmichael looks more and more unbeatable, as he, once again, covered all the bases and relentlessly pounded out lap times that were consistently a second faster than anyone else's. And it was indeed Windham who gave Carmichael his only competition at Millville, as the Honda rider briefly led the first lap of the second moto before Carmichael blitzed by in the sandy whoop section. Windham did manage to stay relatively close for half the race, but ultimately, he would spend most of the day running all alone in second. After the event, Windham sounded almost apologetic for finishing second. "It's hard to talk about it, because it is kind of a boring position to be in," Windham said, referring to many times being the bridesmaid to Carmichael. "Don't get me wrong, second is great, but I miss a good race, and I've got to find a way to get up there and just battle with him. I felt good to be in the lead for a while during that opening lap of the second moto, but I've got to find a way to make up some time." Carmichael was remarkably fast through Spring Creek's notorious sandy M Briefly... Team Kawasaki's James Stewart, who was scheduled to make his return to the AMA series at Millville after hitting his head during the Unadilla race, was a no-show at Spring Creek after sustaining yet another injury while practicing at Glen Helen Raceway Park in San Bernardino, California, Thursday, August I I. According to his physician, Stewart sustained a severe hematoma in his lower right hip. After consulting with his physician and Team Kawasaki, Stewart decided it was best to sit out the Minnesota round. Team Yamaha's Chad Reed was also missing at Millville and is listed as out for the season. The Yamaha factory racer underwent surgery to remove damaged pins from his hand the Wednesday before the Millville event. Reed, who has ridden with the pins since 1999, aggravated the injury as a result of practice crash on Thursday, July 2B, at Glen Helen Raceway. After consulting with doctors and Team Yamaha, it was determined that the best course of action was to immediately remove the damaged pins. As a result of the surgery and rehab, Reed will miss the remainder of the outdoor National series. Reed and the Yamaha Race Team have tentatively set his return for October 7-9 at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas, Nevada. whoop section, and it was there that he gained most of his time on Windham. Carmichael was also the only rider to consistently clear the I I O-foot "Holy Schmit" jump, named after local hero Donny Schmit. Windham did start nailing it dU~ing the second moto, though it probably didn't gain him (or Carmichael) much time. With first and second places pretty much determined, all eyes tumed to the third-place position, where some of the best racing of the day occurred. Team Honda riders Travis Preston and Ernesto Fonseca engaged in a fierce battle over the position. However, it was not a headto-head encounter. In the first moto, Preston turned in a superb race, gating fourth and passing PPG/Motoworidracing.com's Matthew Goerke late in the race to finish third, behind Carmichael and Windham, while Unbound Energy/MDK Motorsports' Nick Weyand Fonseca rounded out the top six. In moto two, Fonseca and Team Yamaha's David Yuillemin battled over the third-place position, while Preston worked his way up from a 14th-place start. Late in the race, Yuillemin passed Fonseca for third, while Preston moved up into sixth. Had the moto ended that way, Preston would have finished third overall, with Fonseca fourth overall. However, Fonseca picked up the pace with two laps to go. "David [Vuillemin] passed me with maybe four laps to go," Fonseca said. "I had a pretty good rhythm going and I didn't want him to pass me, but it ended up being good, because I got to see some of his lines. But then a lapper got in my way, and I lost some ground. When they showed the two-lap board, I kind of gave it a second effort, and I got really close on the last lap. Going into the tum after the whoops, when ran together, and I think he crashed, and that was pretty much it." Yuillemin's crash handed Fonseca third place for the moto and third-place overall for the day, leaving a very disappointed Mike Brown spent the off-week between Washougal and Millville testing his Jim's Motorcycle Sales-sponsored Honda at the Pro Circuit facilities in California. "There was really not enough time between the Supercross season and the outdoor season for us to do any testing," said Brown's mechanic, Cory Shea. "So this was the first time we have really been able to test. Pro Circuit just opened up the doors to us and we spent some time on the dyno. We just played with the cams and moved the power around a little bit. It had been pretty much all low- and midrange power before, and Mike had to do a lot of shifting. Now it is more on the top end, where he likes it. He did some testing on it at Glen Helen and was pretty happy." So far, privateer John Dowd has had a different title sponsor from within the industry for each National race this year. Some of the sponsors to help "Dowdy" have been Spectro Oils, Renthal, Pro Circuit, Racer X and Kicker. At Millville, it was Ricky Carmichael who stepped up to the plate for Dowd. "I think it is awesome," Carmichael said. "I've been teammates with John, raced against him and known him for a long time. I think it's good PR for both of us, and it's fun. I'm just glad to be a part of it." "We didn't have a title sponsor at the start of the season, so each week we have been trying to do some- thing like this," Dowd added. "Any help from these guys makes a big difference. It got a lot of attention, and it was fun for us." Former Motoworldracing.com/Suzuki rider Chris Gosselaar showed up in Millville on a privateer RM-Z4S0. The 25-year-old from Victorville, California, started the year in the 125 class but was looking for a change of fortune in the bigger class at Millville. "I Continued on page 23 CYCLE NEWS • AUGUST 24, 2005 19

• Cover