Carmichael and Windham sweep Broome-Tioga; Campbell and Hengeveld take 2nd at Baja Mex 300

AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Motocross Championship
Round 10: Binghamton, NY
August 24, 2003

Carmichael and Windham sweep Broome-Tioga

Last week at round nine in Millville, Minnesota, Ricky Carmichael went out
and, for lack of a better term, annihilated the rest of the AMA 250
Motocross competition. The defending champion won both motos handily; the
first one by half a lap and the second one quite comfortably too. By all
accounts, round ten, held this weekend in Binghamton, New York was a
drastically different race, but with the same overall result. Carmichael
still won the event at Binghamton's Broome-Tioga Sports Center; however he
did it after crashing out of the lead in the first moto, falling back to
fourth and eventually finishing second to Factory Connection Honda's Kevin
Windham. In the second outing, Windham and his Honda CRF450R again
challenged the champ, only this time Carmichael kept the rubber side down
and made a late-race pass on Windham to take the moto win, and the overall
win away from his Red Rider teammate.

The soil of Broome-Tioga is laced with rocks and Carmichael and Windham
threw plenty at the competition as the Honda duo roosted to an early lead
in the opening moto. The #4 Honda CR250R of Carmichael got the jump over
the Windham's powerful CRF450R four-stroke, but the never-say-die Windham
kept the pressure on until a rare Carmichael mistake left the champ
restarting his motorcycle on the third of 16 laps. It was a small crash;
simply a matter of losing the front end, although Chad Reed and David
Vuillemin were able to move past Carmichael before he was able to rejoin
the race.

With the running order behind him still up for grabs, Windham raced the
remaining 13 laps with only lapped riders in his way. To date, Windham is
the only rider other than Carmichael to have won a 250 moto since the
series began in mid-May. Meanwhile, Reed and Vuillemin quickly succumbed to
the hard-charging Carmichael, who put more than 32 seconds between himself
and eventual third place finisher, Vuillemin.

With the first moto win and his third win of the year a potential reality,
Windham started the second moto with a holeshot and it stuck until the
second lap when Carmichael resumed his usual point position. As always
Windham gave chase, one that no other rider in the 40-man field could
equal, but after chasing for 14 laps the game ended with ten seconds
separating the two lead Hondas. Third place Tim Ferry was another 15
seconds back.

Competing against the likes of the fast-starting Carmichael and Windham,
Red Riders Ernesto Fonseca, Nathan Ramsey and Amsoil/Chaparral/Factory
Connections' Mike LaRocco don't always get the best of gate picks when it
comes time to race, but they always make the best of it. In the first moto
the Honda trio started and raced closely until LaRocco finally emerged in
seventh, while Fonseca and Ramsey finished ninth and tenth respectively.
The second moto saw a similar start and results, only this time LaRocco
advanced one spot higher, to sixth, as Fonseca stayed status quo in ninth
and Ramsey, who is fresh off the injured reserve list, finished 16th. The
always charging LaRocco ended the day in sixth overall, while Fonseca and
Ramsey posted eighth and 12th place results.

While the premier 250 class has been in a Honda stranglehold for the last
two years, the Red Riders competing in the 125 class have not been as
fortunate. Flashes of motocross brilliance occasionally appear from the
Supercross-savvy Amsoil/Chaparral/Factory Connection Honda CR125R talent
pool, but the 2003 season has been one of ups and downs for the
quarter-liter Red Riders. For Michael Byrne, his performance at
Broome-Tioga was an improvement over the previous round, as his 6-5 moto
tally giving him sixth overall. The Australian, who is a force to be
reckoned with on a Supercross track, currently sits fifth in series points
with great potential to move up the leader board as the series heads to the
final two rounds.

Byrne's teammate, Chris Gosselaar has experienced a bizarre motocross
series already, but as the series is winding down he has seemed to have
shaken the bad luck that haunted him in the early going. Gosselaar came
very close to equaling his seventh place finish from last week when he went
8-8 in Binghamton to claim eighth overall. Meanwhile, young team rookie and
New York-native Ryan Mills continued to secure his future with a 13th place
finish this weekend in his home state.

As is the case at most of the stops on the 2003 schedule, Carmichael's win
in Binghamton served some historical significance to the legendary
racetrack. Since 1983 Broome-Tioga has seen the likes of Bob Hannah and
Johnny O'Mara on top of the 250 podium, but Carmichael's race win this
weekend marked the first time in the track's rich history that a 250 rider
has stood on top of the podium four times. Coincidentally, all four of the
RC's Broome-Tioga wins came in consecutive years. Carmichael also won at
the New York track in the 125 class in 1997 and 1999.

With two rounds remaining in the 12-round series, Carmichael is an entire
race win's worth of points ahead of runner-up Windham, but the champ knows
he must keep his cards close, especially as the series heads to Delmont,
Pennsylvania's Steel City Raceway. With a pair of 250 and pair of 125 race
wins to his name at the track, Carmichael is pointed to dominate Steel City
Raceway. However, Windham's record at Steel City is nearly as good as RC's,
so next weekend is already shaping up to be another epic battle between
these two dominant Honda Red Riders.

250 Overall Results:
1. Ricky Carmichael (2, 1) ? Honda
2. Kevin Windham (1, 2) - Honda
3. Tim Ferry (5, 3) - Yamaha
4. Chad Reed (4, 4) ? Yamaha
5. David Vuillemin (3, 5) - Yamaha
6. Mike LaRocco (7, 6) - Honda
8. Ernesto Fonseca (9, 9) - Honda
10. Kyle Lewis (12, 11) ? Honda
11. Paul Carpenter (11, 12) ? Honda
12. Nathan Ramsey (10, 16) - Honda
13. Larry Ward (20, 8) - Honda
16. Clark Stiles (17, 15) - Honda
19. Jason Thomas (35, 14) - Honda

250 AMA Motocross Points Standings:
1. Ricky Carmichael - Honda - 479
2. Kevin Windham - Honda - 416
3. Chad Reed - Yamaha - 366
4. Tim Ferry - Yamaha - 336
5. Mike LaRocco - Honda - 296
8. Ernesto Fonseca - Honda - 213
10. Larry Ward - Honda - 183
12. Kyle Lewis - Honda - 140
14. Clark Stiles - Honda - 111
15. Nathan Ramsey - Honda - 99
17. Jason Thomas - Honda - 66

125 Overall Results
1. James Stewart (1, 1) - Kawasaki
2. Kelly Smith (5, 2) - Yamaha
3. Ryan Hughes (2, 6) ? KTM
4. Josh Woods (4, 4) ? KTM
5. Grant Langston (10, 3) - KTM
6. Michael Byrne (6, 5) - Honda
8. Chris Gosselaar (8, 8) - Honda
13. Ryan Mills (39, 9) - Honda

125 AMA Motocross Point Standings:
1. Grant Langston - KTM - 345
2. Ryan Hughes - KTM ? 335
3. James Stewart - Kawasaki - 300
4. Mike Brown - Kawasaki - 271
5. Brock Sellards - Yamaha ? 247
6. Michael Byrne - Honda - 236
10. Chris Gosselaar - Honda - 160
17. Ryan Mills - Honda - 106



Best in the Desert Silver State Series
Round 6: Baja Mex 300, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
August 23, 2003

The powerhouse team of Honda's Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld proved
that tenacity is just as important as talent in off-road racing by
overcoming several setbacks to emerge second overall on their XR650R at the
Baja Mex 300, round six in Best in the Desert's Silver State Series and the
series' only event in Mexico.

Having drawn the number three starting position, Hengeveld found himself
almost immediately choked in fine dust from the two bikes in front of him
as he sped in the early morning darkness along the Pacific Coast south from
Ensenada. Shortly after leaving pit two, the bike began sputtering and
would barely run on top?a severe handicap to be sure.

Somehow, though, he doggedly clung to the two rival machines in front. "I
just tried going as fast as the bike would allow me to, and I was surprised
that I was that close to them (enough to stay in their dust) because I
could see them both," he said.

But that was actually the lesser of Hengeveld's worries. Earlier, he'd
aggravated a pulled groin he originally suffered when he hit a cow that ran
in front of him while pre-running. "I've been sore all week, but I thought,
'Okay, I'll just take it easy, and race day'll be good.'" But it was not to
be, and he rode most of his 135-mile stint in severe pain, barely able to
even use the rear brake.

Nonetheless, Hengeveld persevered and got the big XR to partner Campbell at
pit three still in a solid third place. After the pit crew dumped a load of
fuel into the bike and replaced the air filter, Campbell raced away?and
discovered the bike still ran poorly.

"It seemed to run on the low end, but it wouldn't run from a quarter
throttle up," he reported. "It took me about half a mile to figure out what
I needed to do. I was almost at the point where I wanted to turn around and
go back to the pit, but you're not supposed to or you'll be disqualified,
according to the rule book."

So, Campbell stopped alongside the course and made a trailside diagnosis to
track down the cause. "My thought was, basically, 'Something's plugging the
main jet.' It felt exactly like that, like there's a piece of dirt or
something that got sucked in. I had to clean it; I couldn't ride it that
way. I pulled the nut off the bottom of the carburetor, and there was some
debris in the carburetor."

After flushing out the carb and bolting things back together, Campbell
fired it up. After an anxious initial moment where the bike sputtered, it
cleaned out and ran like new once again?having lost a couple of minutes
there to the two leaders.

"So then, I basically just rode as hard as I could without making any
mistakes," Campbell said. "I had quite a gap to overcome."

Campbell passed one rival at mile 175 in pit four. "We got a pretty quick
rear-wheel change; the bike was fine," he said. "My pit crew said I was
five minutes behind the lead bike. I just took a deep breath, took off and
put my head down. To pit five at Independencia (mile 190) I made up another
minute and a half, but I still had quite a chunk to overcome."

Chris Blais once again took the iron man approach to the event, riding solo
on his XR650R to finish an impressive fifth overall.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough Mexican real estate remaining for the
Red Riders to complete their charge, and they ended up second overall as
they'd done at the initial running of this event last year. The results
tightened up the series points battle considerably, meaning the last event
on the Best in the Desert calendar will decide the championship.

Baja Mex 300 unofficial overall results
1. Kurt Caselli/Joey Lanza?KTM 525 MXC
2. Johnny Campbell/Steve Hengeveld?Honda XR650R
3. Mike Childress?Kawasaki KX500
4. Chuck Dempsey/Andy Grider?Honda XR650R
5. Christopher Blais?Honda XR650R