R
icky Carmichael will be
celebrating a special
anniversary next week.
Twenty years ago, on September
1, 2002, Carmichael completed
the first perfect season in moto-
cross, winning all 12 rounds of
the AMA/Chevy Trucks 250cc
U.S. Motocross Championship.
If that wasn't impressive enough,
the 23-year-old factory Honda
rider won all 24 motos!
Soak that in for a moment.
You've probably, at one time or
another, raced motocross, so you
know what it means when people
say that anything can happen in
this sport. Of course, anything
can happen in any sport. How-
ever, motocross is so brutal on
both body and machine that you
almost expect something "bad"
to happen every time you roll up
to the start line, like throwing a
chain, twisting an ankle, break-
ing of a shift lever, or getting
surprised by a seemingly harm-
less front-end washout. Simple
things like these can easily mean
the difference between a win
and second place or a win and
a DNF. So, completing a perfect
season in motocross is extraor-
dinary.
Of course, there were many
people behind the scenes that
contributed to Carmichael's per-
fect season, obviously his family
and friends, his Honda team,
and, perhaps most importantly,
his tuner at the time, Chad Watts,
who had to have been on pins
and needles more than anyone
on the planet the day when
Carmichael sealed the deal at
the Steel City National in Del-
mont, Pennsylvania. Wonder how
many times Watts tightened and
retightened every nut and bolt
and checked chain tension on
RC's CR250R two-stroke before
the motos?
"If someone would have told
me that I was going to accom-
plish this at the beginning of the
season, I would have laughed,"
Carmichael told Cycle News. "I
never thought I would go unde-
feated. I just wanted to defend
my title and win another one for
Honda. It was a hell of a year."
Yes, that it was.
We named Carmichael our
2002 Cycle News Rider of the
Year a few months later. He was
the first person to receive the
award two times, and he did it
back-to-back. We asked many
legends of the sport what they
thought about RC's accomplish-
ment.
Johnny O'Mara, one of Carmi-
chael's best friends and mentor,
said, "I probably never would've
CN
III ARCHIVES
P122
BY KIT PALMER
PERFECTION
Ricky Carmichael's Perfect Season
Honda's ad in Cycle News after
Ricky Carmichael's first perfect
season says it all.
