Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAiChevy Trucks !5Dcc National MX Champion Ricky Carmichael B ut th is time t here wa s n o p re ssure , no race , and no 20 re po rte r s w a nt in g to talk to h im at o ne ti me. Ju st u s . It felt k ind o f stra ng e , bu t good . I looked around at what I had earlier t h ou g ht wa s n ot h in g m o re tha n a rund own sh ac k an d it was ac tua lly a a ns wered , "M illv ille. It rem in d s m e a lo t of Millville [Spr in g Creek MX Par k ], bec a use the dirt is loamy and re al sa n dy in pl aces, j u st like M ill vi lle. I guess th at ' s why I do so well there." Po rt io n s of th e track p rotruded into th e woods and t he overall layout seemed incred ib ly lo ng. " It takes m e about three minutes and 40 seconds t o do a lap." I was right; it was inc red ib ly lo ng . As we con ti nued on , he pointed out a small pond a few yards awa y from one section of t he track . "T hat's m y po nd ; w e fis h in it somet im es. You can see t hat th e water level is wa y down: we haven 't had much rain t hi s year. " O ve r ther e [he po in ts to a sig n ifi ca ntl y larg er po nd in th e d istanc e] is m y ne ighbors ' lake. A 'gator lives in t hat o ne." Carmi chael c o nt inu ed to drive m e r e ally cool pl ace , al b ei t sm a ll , but cool. In one corner was an ela borate sound syste m and t e le vis ion , a nd next to it w as a wood- burn ing st ove , all wi th in one or tw o st rides f rom th e living room 's lone lea t her c o u c h . T o t he right of th e entry way w as a small k itch en , and beyond t ha t w as a sta ir case that led u p to a si ngle bed ro o m an d bathroom . T al k about cozy . " I love it here," Carm ich ael said . "I b ought this pl ac e about a y ear ago. I like li v in g o ut h ere b ec a us e it' s eas y and I h av e m y ow n ro uti ne bac k here. I've g ro wn up in the E ast a nd th at ' s the o nl y th ing I k now ." I w asn ' t inside Ca rm ichael's house for more than a few m in utes w hen h e sa id , "Let me show you around ." I thought he w as going to g ive me a qu i c k tour o f hi s h o u se when , afte r p u t tin g his shoes on , he le d me o ut side to h is ba rn . "We'll ho p on the mu le and I ' ll show y o u m y practice tracks." The mule he wa s t a lk in g abou t was o f the meta l var ie t y , K a w a sa k i ' s fou r whee l Mul e, an d w e heade d around h is trac k , p ointing out some of h is favori te sections. " T hi s b erm i s a lo t of f un ; you come in o ver there, drift out here and then j us t get o n it an d go up that h il l. T h e li n e o n the left work s pretty good ." B y now I w as gett ing a good id ea j ust why he lives so far out in the co un try . " Hmm , wh o ' s th a t ? " Car m ich ael said u nder his breath . In the d istan c e, bac k at his h o u se , an SUV and a out to ward t h e o pe n f ie ld that o pened u p a bo ut 50 yards from h is hou se. " I' ve g ot a bo u t a h u n dred ac re s," he sai d. A s w e c re sted a small r ise, th e bright -red cla y of Carm i ch a el' s S u perc ross trac k stood o u t like a sore t h u mb . The t r a c k wa s t ru ck h ad pull ed up a nd a bun c h of peop le w er e mi lling aro u nd . Carm icha el turned t he M ul e toward the new comer s to invest ig at e. " O h , t h at look s lik e D a v i Mi ll saps ' d ad i n th e t r u ck ; the M i ll s a p s l i v e down the roa d f rom m e. " As we g et c los e r , b e a u t i f u ll y gro om ed and h ad fresh k no b by t ra c ks on it. " T h is i s w here I d o most of m y p ra ct ici n g ," Carmichael said . " M a r k Carmicha el reco g ni zes th e ot her peop le . "T h ey 're fro m THQ [the v ideo -ga me com pa n y th at sponsors Carmich a e l]." Barnett [ a f orme r Supercro ss and N ation al MX Ch amp ion ] b uilt it for me. It's n ice bec ause I don 't have to load up and driv e somewhere every t ime I p r a c t ic e . I nev er h ave to g o an y w h ere. " O ver her e is m y outdoors tra c k ," he sa id pointing to h is left. Just as i mpressive as the su per c ros s track was Carmic hael's " o u t doo r " t ra ck t h at he tra in s o n for the N ati onal MX Ser ies, but you c o u ld tell tha t the loamy tra c k hadn 't been r id - A s i t t u rn e d o u t , M r. M i ll s ap s sw u ng by j ust to say hi to h is neig h bor , Carmicha el. M r . M ill saps and h is f a mi ly had r e c en tly r etu rn ed fro m G a in esv i ll e, F l o r id a , wh ere h is so n, D a v i , d id quite we ll at th e M in i Ol ymp i c s. T h e THQ p e o p l e where here to film v id eo of Carmichael rid ing fo r o ne of t heir vi de o ga m es, fea turing , of course, Carmichael. W e all cha tted fo r a w h ile , m o stly about b ik es , racing and rumo rs, w hen Mr. Millsaps sai d it wa s time for him to leave and d rov e away. W h ile th e TH Q g uys were setti ng up for their ph oto shoot , Carm icha el and I walked back to his house to fin ish up our in terview. We to o k off our shoes before we en tered . (T h a t r ed clay is n as ty st uff, and murd er on floors. ) den o n i n q ui te s om e ti me. Carmich ael steer ed the Mule o nto th e tra c k . "T he re a re n 't too m an y jumps on m y o u t doo r t r a c k , but th e r e a re a couple of good o nes, " he sai d as w e sl o w ly ci rc led t h e t rack. "I t ca n get p retty rough ." Wh en I as k ed h im wh at t rack on the Natio n a l c ircuit m os t resem b les h is 20 pr a ct ic e trac k , J ANUARY 3 ,200 1 • he e Ca rmic hae l whip ped u p a cou p le o f tu r k e y san d w i ch e s fo r an early lunch an d we talked. qui ckly ye I e neVIl'S Ca~:rnichael 0 0... !..w hat he thtnks about all th e attentio n (b at he ge...... from w inn ing c bamplonsbtps, When you 're winning, peopl e always want a piece of yo u, and it gets hecti c someti mes. For a whil e there, no one will come or take pictures or do anything, all of a sudden, one person wants to come and it sto rm s, When it rains it pou rs. Like, yesterday Larr y Maiers and MotoWorld were here, and right before that Fox was here for a couple of days shooting videos. [But ] I like it. I like to tak e care of the press and the peop le I have to: it doesn't both er m e. It's tough on my schedule someti mes, but I have to do it. It's part of the jo b, that' s why we get paid the money we do. Al so, there are m ore medi a outlets these days. Motocro ss is definit ely pick ing up - all of sports have. There are a lot m ore shows out ther e, a lot of maga zines - there are so many magazines, not j ust the usual ones. It' s defi nitely wide open now, especially in the off season. Everyb ody's try ing to hype th eir riders for the upco mi ng season ... bcin~ famOlL s, --- One thing is for sure, I get noti ced in Califomia a lot more than I do in Florida , jus t because the sport is so mu ch bigge r in Califomi a. Riding is huge there; there are so ma ny riding areas. I definitely get more notice d in Californ ia. ... bein g: a star of h is own video game and h.n i ng h is o w n action- figure to)' . When you 're littl e, you never think of havi ng (your own] video game. It's funny when yo u go into tow n and you talk to your budd ies and they're always talking about, 'Hey m an, we pl ayed you r video game...' I thi nk it's good, a good opportunity to take the sport to a new level. It' s also cool to walk into a toy store and see yo urself as an action figure on the shelves, it's amazing. You never thi nk you're goi ng to have something like that; that's somet hing only for famo us peopl e, but we're really not that famo us. It' s neat. .c.beln g a cole model. 1feel like I'm some what of a role model to the lit tl e guy s, and I like it. I lik e to set a goo d example. My m om 's always told me to set a good example , be a good person and she's ta ught m e well. So I try to tak e care of all the fans, especia lly the litt le kids. I really emphasize on the littl e kids. You are their hero and in their eyes you can't do no wron g. So when they come up through that line, yo u bett er tak e care of them , ack nowledge them , mak e eye contact and really take care of them . My m om had a daycare business, so I was always around little kids, so I'm used to being around littl e kid s, I enjoy them and I try to put m yself in their shoes. Winning the first one was a big deal. I didn 't expec t to win the champio nship. I jus t expect ed to be on the podium a few times and win a co uple of races. That was my goal at the beginning of the year. Aft er I won the firs t thr ee Nationals [round s], I began to realize I could win the titl e. But if I did n't , I wouldn't be bumm ed out because I had alr eady won three Nationals and acco mpli shed the goal s that I set out to accomplish. It was definitely a treat to win that titl e. If I didn't win it the next year, it would 've been a big letdown . •.. h i ~ tea n smon to the 250cc Ch l S S i n Supcrc ross . It was tough. I only raced two years 125 supercross - '97 and '98. In '98, I swept all of them - the eight East Coast rounds and the

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