Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Ar..esr Field 2006 Amp'd Mobll€ Wonld Supercross EPlAmp'd Mobile AMA suP€l'cPoss Scrics I or rhe first time since 1992, the I lYn suoercross Series will be h,.r1, decided at rhe lasr ra(e, | ""a, while everyone thought r that the 2006 Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross Series would be a close one, no one could have thought that it was going to be this close. A very wet and muddy Seattle Supercross, the penultimate round of the 2006 Supercross Series, set the stage for what is now the most hiShly anticipated SX race in quite sgme time, if not ever With Kawasaki's James Stewart taking his go-ahead seventh win of the season, and Yamaha's Chad Reed finishing second and Makita Suzuki's Ricky Carmichael flnishinS third, the series is now tied with iust one round lett to go at Las Vegas. Carmichael and Reed are deadlocked with 3 l6 points each, and Stewart is l'rrking just five points back in third. "We had the press conference at Anaheim l, and we said that we wanted to take it to Vegas, and I don't think any of us thought it was goinS to be this close," Stewan said- "But I think it's goinS to be fun, and I'm super stoked to have a chance to win the title." ln the race for the World title, which runs parallel to the AMA Series following the two Canadian rounds held in December, things are a little less compli cated, with Stewart holding a l2-Point lead over Carmichael and a 2l-point cushion over Reed. Carmichael, who has seen his once semicomfortable points lead in the Al'4A Series shrink to nothing, echoed Stewart's comments about the close fin- ish but seemed less enthused about the 2006 title coming down to the final moto. "lt's come down to what everybody wants," Carmichael said. "This is what you guys have been begging for, and you got it, so for you Euys it's Soing to be exciting, for us it's going to be exciting, and l'm glad to be part of it-" From the podium, Carmichael said with a hint of {rusffation, ".-.Whatever happens, happens." Perhaps the rider happiest to be Part of it is fued. After staning the flrst half of the season lukewarm, posting five third-Place finishes and one fifth-place finish through the lirst eight races, Reed used the combi- nation of faster riding and making full use of some good opponunities that came his way during the latter half of the season to put him right in the heat of the battle. "For me, l'm pumped to be in this position," Reed said. ''There were tlvo really important races this year [St. Louis and Dallas], and I happened to win those ones, so basically l5 races mean nothing - Vegas is the one that counts," There are mary possible scenarios Soin8 into next week's final, but the most obvious seems to be this: lf Stewart - the hottest rider of the ieri€s right now - wins, then whomever finishes second between Carmichael and Reed (assuming they finish 2-3) will win the tide, and the other will fin- ish third rn the series. Again, rf Stewan wins, rhat will guarantee the Team Kawasaki rider at least second in the series. sance he will tie whomever finishes third (between Carmichael and Reed), and Stewan will come out ahead on the tie breaker via hav- ing the most wins on the year- As mentioned, this year's Seattle Supercross was a wet one. Around I p.m., the rain started to fall, and it refused to let up until shortly before the eveninS's Pro- gram got underway. And since Qwest Field does not have a full roof, the rain forced the cancellation of the second round of pmc- tice earlier in the day. and it also made race officials choose to shorten the laps of the heat ruces and the main event, which Eot hacked from 20 to 15 laps. Despite the rain (and some very cold temperatures), 46,895 fans flocked to the stadium and saw some fairly good racing in condilions thar were similar to those of the San Francisco Supercross in February (but not quite as bad). l4ost of the close racing, howevet came in the heat races, as the Supercross-class main eveft was fairly uneventful - at least for the leaders, Stewart and Reed- Stewart got out in front earty, Passing MDlVMotospofl;/Honda's Nick Wey, who had taken the $ 1000 Progressive Holeshot Award, before the first lap was over. He quickly opened up a big lead, kept his bike on two wheels through the slop and deep ruts, and strolled across the finish line I 2. I 07 seconds ahead of Reed. "l had a pretty good start," Stewart said. "l actualb,, thought I had the holeshot; then Nick came from the ouside and he got it. I got past him throu8h the {irst set oI iumps, and then I just wanted to make sure I hit eyerything the first lap to get a linle gap: I did the triple. the finishJine [iump], and then I think that I saw on the pit board that I had, like, 14 seconds by the second lap, so I figured that was good enough and iust tried to manaSe that and stay away from the lappers." And that's exactly what he did, and he won easily- Stewart's victory was truly amazing when you consider that he only got three l+s of practice in before the evening's program. ln his one and only practice session, Stewart crashed sPectacu- lart/, bending his bike too badly to continue. "The track changed a lot from practice to the heat race to the main event," Stewart said- "The key for me tonight was to 8et a good start, and I got a Sood start, so I could iust ride the main line. I could tell where the 125 guys were goinS and iust kind of followed those lines and just hit everything perfect the first few laps." Even Reed's race was uneventful, although he did say that he had a close encounrer with I'4ichael Byrne on the first lap. However, he gated well and laid claim to second place before the llrst lap was over, but he never got close enough to Stewan to offer up a serious challenge, and he never felt any pressure from behind. 'r\pan from the first lap, everything was pretty much going thro'Jgh the motions," Reed said. "l got a good jump. and then I kind of spun over the gate a little bit and iust kind of had to be smart through the flrst turn. I almost landed on Michael Byrne, actually - that was a liftle freaky. Other than that. once I got into second, I could see lames, and he had a great first lap, and I iust kind of watched him and tried !o hit all my lines good and try ro even up this points chase Soing into Vegas. ' Unlike Stewan and Reed. Carmichael had an action-packed race. The defending champ, however, seemed to struggte all night in the mud. ln his heat race, Carmichael worked quite hard to get around K's l'lotorsports Jeff Dement before winning, and he certainly had a busy main event after gefting off to a hor- rible start. He completed rhe first lap in l3th place and was covered in mud. I I Y tt3 D E t fi down I I 0 1il a t \ \ i\ \ I t n ! .i I { t U f- ' I a p al { a 1L ffi. b \ t lames $tewart win$ in $eaille, while Gamichael and RcGd g0 int0 lhe Iinal all euen BY Kr PA[r ER Pxoros sv StEvE BRUHN 30 MAY r0,2006 " cYcLE NEWS SUPCRCROSS Rounds r 6/15 April 29. 2(,06 t ,rl I l! t I ,

• Cover