Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

getting off to about a 10th-place start. And it only got worse when he got tan- gled up with Kawasaki's Michael Byrne and Honda's Davi Millsaps. "I fell down on the first lap back there," Carmichael said. "Burner [Byrne] fell down right in front of Millsaps; he hit him and fell, and I fell down right behind him [Millsaps]." Carmichael remounted quickly, picked off a couple of riders and was already in seventh after the first lap. Knowing he had to get into second quickly before Stewart could really break away, Carmichael set a blistering pace that put him into third by the second lap. He was well behind Reed, but Carmichael slowly reeled in the Yamaha rider. After a few more laps, Carmichael was right on Reed, but it took Carmichael a valuable lap to get around him. "I was marking [Stewart] and could see that I was slowly inching," Carmichael said. "When I got behind Chad, I lost a lit- tle bit of time there, but I was able to get by him pretty quick." Once into second, Carmichael had about 11 seconds between him and the leader Stewart with just eight laps left in the race. That meant that Carmichael had to carve off at least one second a lap if he was to have a chance of catching Stewart, which would be no easy task - even for Carmichael. But he managed to find a second here, and a second there, around the fast and hilly track. With about five laps left, he had Stewart within his sights, and pretty soon, he had reduced Stewart's lead to just a bikelength or two with only a few laps remaining. "I saw Ricky coming up... and he was just closing in on me, little by little, and there was nothing I could do," Stewart said. "I couldn't push any harder. I was waiting for him to get there and just bat- tle with him." Three laps from the end, the two rid- ers swapped positions a couple of times until Carmichael finally took control on the second-to-last lap, opening up a small lead on Stewart. "James had a lot of momentum before the Mechanic's turn," Carmichael said. "But I was able to hold the inside. I thought that was a really strong point for me all day; I was able to grip the inside there. I was able to make a clean pass." After getting around Stewart, Carmichael held his ground - until... "I just tried to protect my lines really good and stay ahead of him," Carmichael said of taking the lead. "I knew if I could stay in front of him before the chicanes where Chad crashed, I thought I could maybe settle in. All of the rest of the track, I just had to protect." But a few turns from taking the white flag, Carmichael stunned the crowd when he lost the front end and crash heavily over a jump. "Stupid mistake," Carmichael said. "I was just trying to go. Clark Stiles was on the outside of me, and I was just going on the inside, leaning forward, charging, just getting ready to jump that jump, and as I landed over those three little bumps before the jump, my tire started sliding and it caught, and I had all of my weight forward and away I went. "I was scared to death in the air because I thought James was coming, and I thought he had a lot of momentum and wasn't going to be able to swerve out of the way, so when I was in the air and crashing, I'm like, 'I've got to hurry up and get out of the way so I don't get hit.' But he seen me going down and was able to swerve out of the way. It was slow motion, I seen it coming and tried to hold on - couldn't do it." Stewart saw Carmichael get out of shape but didn't know for sure if he had gone down or not on the other side. "I actually saw him crashing," Stewart said, "and I [thought], 'Man, if he saved that, I'm going to come over and bow to [him].' I was like, 'Ah, I don't know if any- body could save it.' He was swapping going up there, I thought he might save it but he didn't." Stewart was obviously thrilled to have won. C Y C L E N E W S • AUGUST 9, 2006 23 After passing Stewart in the last laps of the second moto, a very uncharacteristic crash cost Carmichael the overall win. Chad Reed stayed consistent, scoring 3-3 for third overall.

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