Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly... worked out pretty decent for me; I think I was in the rop five or so. ln the begin- ning, the guys were going everywhere and it kind of freaked me out a little bit." Leading the way was Honda's Ernesto Fonseca, followed by Makita Suzuki's lvan Tedesco and SoBe/Samsungi Honda's Mike LaRocco. Before long, Stewart had latched on to Carmichael. and the trvo began working their way up through the pack, pulling up behind second-placed Reed by the founh circuit. During the fifth lap, Reed, Carmichael and Stewart were barreling in on the leader, Fonseca, when he lost control of his factory Honda CRF450R and crashed in spectacular fash- ion, execution a huge flying-W before tumblinS to the ground. He was uniniured in the fall and got going again in fifth. ''lt was a rookie mistake," Fonseca said. ''l've been racing for a while and shouldn't let something like that happen.'' Afrer Fonseca crashed. the massive crowd got what it had come to see - Carmichael, Reed and Stewaft all togeth- er and battling for the lead. For the next three lap6, Reed led the way, with Carmichael and Stewart in close pursuit. On the ninth lap, fued and Carmichael emerged from the under-over sedion of the track side by side, with Carmichael seizing control of the better line and Eking over the lead. Unfonunately for him, the lead wouldn't last for long. Larer that lap, headinS into a long whoop section, Carmichael sayr' a slower rider already in the whoops ahead of him and changed his line; this threw off his rhythm, and he let the rear wheel drop inside a whoop, which sent him crashing off the track. Stewart said that he nearly hit Carmichael as he was going down. "l got by Chad," Carmichael said, "He made a little mistake there by the mechanics' area, and I was able to get by him. I iust tried to get a good run into the whoops - I thought the faster I could go into them, the better it would be - and I iust missed one. The rest is history" Carmichael got back up in sixth with a tweaked front end and a bent clutch lever pointing nearly straight up. lt took him three laps to get around Fonseca and another three laps to get around laRocco, which was good enough to get him on the podium in third - the same position he finished last year at Anaheim l. 'At that point lafter the crash], it was iust survivd, and iust try to get back up to the podium," Carmichael said. "l felt ter- rible after I fell; I don't know how I got on the podium." After Carmichael went down, Reed found himself in the lead a8ain, but it would be short-lived. Reed bobbled exit- ing a turn, which prevented him from 8et- ting a drive good enough to clear a triple- triple section that he had been iumping earlier. As a result, Stewart pulled up alongside the Yamaha rider and stuffed Reed in the following left-hand turn, where they actually might have touched in what was a clean pass. Once Stewan passed Peed on the loth lap, the race was for all intents and pur- poses over, a5 he slowly inched away from Reed, expanding hi! cushion by about a second per lap. Stewart officially Believe it or not, four-time Supercross Champion Rick, Carmichael has never won the series opener atAngelStadium. It's one o{ the few accomplishments still on his to-do list. "ldon't know," Carmichael said of his winless run at Anaheim l. "l have always wanted to win Anah€im, but I've never done lhat in my careen and l m run- ning out oftime- lthink l've gotten third about three or four times at the first race. and ifthat's any kind of omen, l'll take it. But I reElly, really wanted to win the flrst race, iust to put a check mark on some of rny personal 8oals. But it didn't happen, so we move on and we go to Phoenix." FeelinSs were certainly mixed about the unusuait rough and techni.al Anaheim track some liked it, some did not. A seem- inSly hiSher number than usual of riders crashed throu8hout the day's program, some of those get-offs resulting in trip6 to the hospital. "The track was tough, for sure," Carmichaelsaid. "lt had a long set of whoops. lt was a tight track ahd mistakes carne. lt just seemed like you were bqund up allth€ dme." Team HondJs Travis Pre- ston was one ofthose who didnt like tie track and had ho problems sharing his thoughG about it. "l've 8ot to say (har that wa5 the worst racetrack I've ever seen in my life," Preston said. "l mean. I could build a better track with my friends in the desert, It wEs ridiculous. I remember in the day when a Supercross track used to have a flow a rhythm - there wasn't one rhythm section, one round... lt wEs all square edges, curbs - it was terrible. l'm iust realv disgust- ed labanJt] the track, and make sure that's put in capital letters." Mike LaRocco w"s a liftle less critica, of the track. "lt was rou8h," he said. "lt was bumpy before the jumps, which made it difficult to get a good flow. lt was kind of weird all nighq l'm not opposed to taking the rtrythm out, but it's tough when allthe faces are pitted." Chad Reed .aid he liked the track. "l think the track was a treat track," Re€d said. "lthink the din was the best Anaheim din l've ever rode on. Some of the transitiofls could be a little berrer, bur that s pan of it. Other than that. I think it js one of those tracks where you needed to be consistem, and iust to be on the podium - that was my aim. I felt that it was a track that could really iump up and grab you, iust little things. and the speeds you are 8oin8, you've 8ot to b€ careful." Andrew Short said he was okay with the track. "l liked it. because there were a lot of areas where you could make up time, like afterthe finish area," Short said. "You could make up a tenth here and a tenth there. The whoop section was really tough tonight and th:t was to my advantaSe - it seemed like I could make up time there. Without that section, I couldn't have come back rrom the start like that. I don't expect to get away with that in the future, and I will have to get a good start and ride 15 solid laps," Iim Fery retumed to ra.ing at Anahdm I after an eighr-monfi layofr due to injury He also made his debut on the Unbound Ener- g/Moto XxX Honda team after riding Yama- has for d€ last eight yeers, the last few as a member of Team Yamaha "l'm prett), excited lto be back]," Ferry said on Friday. "l talked to [Moto XXX team] pretty much the whole off se6son, and it took a while for all of it to come toge$er. About five or six weeks a€o, we tinalv signed the deal. About that time, I got on $e motorcr,cle and started fiding a8ain. I had ry wrist sur8er/ almort live rnonths ago, and I had knee surgery also, so last )rear was conrinued on F.,ge ll CYCLE NEWS * JANUARY 18, 2006 l5 $rN\\\ \ r I 4: ,$ I :t l 7a r- 't L--- '.\ 5 zt{ofrw D E dfu-- I I ! /, r Herc, Ricky Cormichoal posses Chod Reed for the leod. Moments loter, Cqrmichqel

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