CARMICHAEL TAKES PODIUM AFTER CRASH
Team Makita Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael raced back from a crash to take second place overall at Saturday night’s World Supercross Championship opener in Toronto, Canada.
The reigning AMA and Motocross Champion dropped to 18th position after falling in his fight for the front with Nick Wey (Honda), but mounted a heroic challenge aboard his new RM-Z450.
Unfortunately, Carmichael’s Makita Suzuki team mate Ivan Tedesco didn’t fare so well. Competitor James Stewart landed on Tedesco in the day’s first practice session and the resulting crash left the Makita Suzuki rider with an injured left hand. Because there were no X-Ray facilities on-site, Tedesco will have the hand examined when he returns to the U.S. Tedesco has filed a formal protest against Stewart for unsafe riding with the FIM, the event’s sanctioning body.
Although Carmichael will run an abbreviated schedule in 2007, the 2006 AMA Motocross Champion still gave his all in the Toronto event. He started the evening in true championship-winning fashion by getting the holeshot, leading and winning the first eight-lap Supercross-class heat race of the evening.
"I just had to come to these two Canada rounds," he said about racing the first two World Supercross GP events. "The fans are awesome. This is my third time here and James and I had a good battle last year. It’s great to see everybody coming back for more racing action."
The 20-lap main event saw Carmichael get a good start, going into turn one in second position. He was battling for the lead on the following lap when his handlebar clipped a Tuff Block and he went down. In spite of the get-off, Carmichael put his head down and rode through the field, overtaking competitors left and right. With just one lap to go, he moved into second place and cruised to the finish.
"This was a good weekend for me, minus the fall," said 27-year-old Carmichael. "I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t give myself a chance to win this race. I took a shot, I fell but next week there’s another race at Vancouver. To come back and finish second at this level, I’m really proud of myself and I’m happy with the way that I rode. I’m also really happy with my bike; the Suzuki is working good, my training camp is going well and my attitude toward racing is great."
Next weekend’s Vancouver, B.C., race is the last World Supercross GP event until the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Championship Series starts on January 6th in Anaheim, California.
Supercross Results: 1 Chad Reed (Yamaha), 2 Ricky Carmichael (Makita Suzuki), 3 James Stewart (Kawasaki), 4 Tim Ferry (Kawasaki), 5 David Vuillemin (Honda), 6 Nick Wey (Honda), 7 Ryan Clark (Honda), 9 Paul Carpenter (Kawasaki), 9 Heath Voss (Honda), 10 Jeff Gibson (Kawasaki).
From Team Suzuki
