Carmichael and Fonseca Share St. Louis AMA Podium

              AMA Supercross Series 250cc/125cc East
Round 11: St. Louis, MO
March 22, 2003

Historically, Ricky Carmichael has enjoyed much success in St. Louis. He
first won there in 1998 while contesting the 125 class, and since then has
recorded a pair of 250 Main Event victories. A win in St. Louis this year
would make Carmichael the city's most successful Supercross patron and
based on the short history of the 2003 series, only one thing could prevent
him from chalking up another win: a crash. Unfortunately, that's what
happened in St. Louis.

"I have no excuse," said a still confident Carmichael about finishing
second to Chad Reed. "I made a mistake and if you look at the four races
this year that I haven't won, it's because I crashed. The only thing that
is beating me is the track. As far as the championship goes, I have a
22-point lead and that's pretty good with only five races left. At this
point, I'm better than I was last year."

Round 11 in St. Louis started out much like the rest of the series. Aboard
his Honda CR250R, Carmichael won his eight-lap heat race with an
11.761-second margin of victory. The rutted circuit inside the Edward Jones
Dome wasn't as challenging as the previous round in Daytona, but it was
still craggy enough to highlight Carmichael's rough terrain riding skills.

Carmichael's Honda teammates, Ernesto Fonseca and Travis Preston also
demonstrated their talents on the rapidly deteriorating track. In their
heat race, Amsoil/Chaparral/Factory Connection Honda CRF450R-mounted
Preston finished second to Reed, while Fonseca worked his way through
traffic to post a fourth place finish. Coincidentally, the track favored
lap times in the 54-second range, but Fonseca and Carmichael were two of
only three riders able to break the 52-second barrier in their Heat races.

"The track was tough," stressed Fonseca. "The whoops were very uneven and
cupped out, which made it hard to get a rhythm going."

Fonseca and his CR250R had no problem getting a rhythm in the 250 Main as
he and Carmichael got off to a clean start. Preston wasn't as lucky. The
defending 125 Western Region champion got caught in a first turn fracas and
couldn't continue due to broken spokes as a result of the crash. While a
disappointed Preston was heading back to the pits, Carmichael and Reed were
giving the 46,472 in attendance their money's worth. In the first four laps
of the 20-lap event, they switched the lead several times. Just before the
conclusion of the fifth lap, Carmichael was prepared to retake the lead
over a triple-jump rhythm section that Reed was not conquering
consistently.

"I wasn't sure if he was going to jump the section, so I decided to do it
at the last second," explained Carmichael. "I veered off to the right
because I didn't want to land on him and I ran out of race track."

Upon landing Carmichael hit one of the foam track barriers and went down.
Before he could remount the #4 Honda, Danny Smith, Fonseca and
CRF450R-mounted Larry Ward sped past, leaving Carmichael in fifth place.
The group didn't stay in front of the two-time defending Supercross
champion for long. By lap nine, Carmichael had fought his way back to
second place and was focused on catching Reed.

"You always want to win. That's the goal," said Carmichael. "If I was
behind him and didn't feel comfortable, I probably would have backed it
down, but I felt good chasing him.

"I thought I had the speed and had what it took, but I didn't put it
together," continued Carmichael about catching and passing Reed for the
lead. "I was never thinking of settling for second. It was a fun race until
I went down and it would have been fun to battle it out the whole 20 laps."

Fonseca and Smith battled it out for much of the 20-lap race. On lap 14
Fonseca passed Smith, taking over third place for good. A lap later, Ward
also passed Smith to secure a fourth place finish. Both results marked a
season high finish for young Fonseca and veteran Ward.

"Hopefully I can keep it going from now on," said Fonseca, who won the St.
Louis Supercross in the 125 class in 1999. "I've been hitting the ground a
lot and hopefully that's over."

With five rounds remaining Fonseca sits just outside the top five in the
series point standings, while Carmichael leads by 22 points. Meanwhile,
their Amsoil/Chaparral/Factory Connection Honda protégé Ryan Mills secured
his top ten placing in 125 Eastern Region action with a tenth place finish
in St. Louis. The series now heads to Texas for round twelve, and the
entire Red Rider squadron plans to light up the Houston Astrodome.
Carmichael has done it twice before with wins in 2002 and 2001 and Preston
won his first Supercross in Houston aboard a 125 in 2001.

250 Main Event Results:
1. Chad Reed - Yamaha
2. Ricky Carmichael - Honda
3. Ernesto Fonseca - Honda
4. Larry Ward - Honda
5. Nick Wey - Yamaha
10. Jason Thomas - Honda
17. Joe Oehlhof - Honda
19. Clark Stiles - Honda
20. Travis Preston - Honda


250 AMA Supercross Point Standings:
1. Ricky Carmichael - Honda - 257
2. Chad Reed - Yamaha - 235
3. David Vuillemin - Yamaha - 169
4. Tim Ferry - Yamaha - 163
5. Ezra Lusk - Kawasaki - 149
6. Ernesto Fonseca - Honda - 125
9. Larry Ward - Honda - 93
11. Michael Byrne - Honda - 75
12. Mike LaRocco - Honda - 73
17. Damon Huffman - Honda - 55
19. Travis Preston - Honda - 38
20. Paul Carpenter - Honda - 36


125 Eastern Region Main Event Results:
1. Branden Jesseman - Suzuki
2. Steve Boniface - KTM
3. Mike Brown - Kawasaki
4. Kelly Smith - Yamaha
5. Brett Metcalfe - KTM
10. Ryan Mills - Honda

125 Eastern Region Point Standings:
1. Branden Jesseman - Suzuki - 117
2. Mike Brown - Kawasaki - 107
3. Brock Sellards - Yamaha - 93
4. Kelly Smith - Yamaha - 79
5. (Tie) Erick Vallejo - Yamaha/Brett Metcalfe - KTM - 52
9. Ryan Mills - Honda- 48
11. (Tie) Michael Byrne - Honda - 36