Dirt Bike News – Race Report: Vancouver Supercross 2005 – Dirt Rider Magazine

Round one of the AMP’D Mobile World Supercross GP Series in Toronto was a dream race for James Stewart. But round two quickly turned into a nightmare for everybody else.Kyle Lewis grabbed the holeshot, followed closely Stewart, who quickly moved by into the lead. Unfortunately, after a couple of riders got together in the first turn just behind Lewis and Stewart, it created a bottleneck and held up Stewart’s rivals Ricky Carmichael and Chad Reed.”I don’t know what the problem is,” Carmichael said of his poor starts in Toronto and now in Vancouver. “I got great starts at Vegas [US Open] and I really thought that really helped me out. But that’s not good—especially when me and James are really close. He’s good one lap and I’m good one lap… That’s not really putting yourself in a great position to at least get up there and do battle, and it really made for a boring race for the fans and everybody watching if they wanted to see a race for the lead because James was gone. I was in a battle there with Chad for five or so laps, and then I broke away and I was in no man’s land.”With Carmichael and Reed attempting to work their way through the pack, all Stewart had to do is be consistent and minimize his mistakes.”My dad always says, ‘You only got to win a race by a tire mark,’” Stewart said. “By that time that I was out front, I just wanted to make sure that I stayed up.”Carmichael worked his way pretty quickly through the pack and within only a couple of laps, he was battling with Reed for third. By around the five-lap mark, he made a pass stick on Reed, and then followed that with a quick pass on second-placed David Vuillemin in the very next corner. From there, it seemed both Stewart and Carmichael were racing the stopwatch.”I saw he was closing and stuff like that, but I just wanted to win the race,” Stewart said.”For sure, he definitely got held up by lappers, but I don’t think I did quite as bad because being the second guy, they kind of move out of the way, so he got held up a little worse than I did,” Carmichael said. “But man, I just tried to put in some good laps. He would inch away, and we’d kind of stay the same, and it was kind of back and fourth, but I was eight seconds behind. I just would like to get up there in the battle like last week. A boring race is good for somebody…”Stewart held on to take the victory with in the area of 10 seconds to spare over Carmichael, with Reed getting by Vuillemin for third.”I felt much better on the bike,” Reed said. “Last weekend, I don’t know what happened, I just didn’t feel that great on the bike. The result wasn’t a whole lot better, but I definitely felt better on the bike. The race was kind of a little hectic there at the beginning. Me and Ricky were kind of banging bars, and it kind of felt like we were in the 125 class. But it was fun to get out there and race.”Carmichael felt like he achieved everything he wanted to, except winning, of course.”I think all of us up here come to win, for sure,” Carmichael said. “It’s part of the World series and you definitely want to win the World title. But I will say that, with my training and everything, I’m not planning to peak at these two events, that’s for sure, because if I was, I would’ve started my training right after Glen Helen. But that’s no excuse. I definitely think I will be better in Anaheim along with everybody else. We have some work to do, and I think the goal is the same.”I’m happy with what I’m doing, I’m riding my race, and I’m not making too many mistakes. I just want there to be good racing. The sport needs good racing. In order to grow, we’re going to have to have good racing.”With two races on board his KX450F, Stewart now has two wins.”I’m going to go back and continue doing the same thing,” Stewart said of what he’s going to do between Vancouver and Anaheim. “Right now, it’s working, and I got to learn a whole lot when I’m racing Ricky. I must’ve watched that tape 150 times over the week, and I’m learning a lot. It’s my second year in 250s, and it’s the second time I rode this motorcycle in a race. I’m learning every week.”
Supercross LitesThe only real reasons for the top 125cc riders to race in Canada are for race experience and testing. However, in Vancouver, even more of the anticipated front-runners from the upcoming Western Regional Series showed up in Vancouver. However, for the most part, the front-runners were basically the same.Just like in the 250cc main, the start made the difference, as Nathan Ramsey dropped the hammer on his KTM 250SX/F first and had a clean line through the track’s opening rhythm section.”I’ve just been practicing my starts and I knew that first rhythm section was going to be messy, so when I got the start I was pumped that I could control that section,” Ramsey said. “Getting the start takes a lot of risk out of it because it becomes you and the track instead of everyone going every direction.”On the other end of the start was Toronto winner Davi Millsaps, who got a horrible start, even for him, as he rounded the first turn near the very back of the pack.”I don’t even know what place of a start I got,” Millsaps said. “I wheelied off the gate and I think I came out like 18th or something like that. I don’t even know, man. It’s too far back.”It’s only a 15-lap race for the 125cc guys, so coming from 18th place to win is nearly unheard of. However, no one told Millsaps.As Ramsey ran away with it out front, Millsaps went to work. He made it through the slower traffic quickly, and only a few laps into the race, he caught teammate Andrew Short in fourth, made the pass, and headed out after WBR Suzuki’s Ryan Sipes, who sat out Toronto.Sipes put up a fight, but before long, Millsaps was alone in third and trying to narrow the gap between himself and Billy Laninovich. Near the 10-lap mark, he made the pass on Laninovich and then set out after Ramsey, who was by himself out front.Unfortunately, though, 17-year-old Millsaps ran out of time and had to settle for second, though not for a lack of trying.

“You can’t ever think that the race is not in your hands, and every time I saw Nathan, he was closer and closer to me,” Millsaps said. “It came to the last lap and I tried as hard as I could the last lap, and after I got to the whoop section, I couldn’t do anything about it. I felt really good on the bike this weekend, so I’m going to go home, train hard, and get ready for the east coast.”With all of these youngsters coming up, 31-year-old Ramsey has to keep up his licks to keep earning wins like this one.”It’s never easy,” Ramsey said. “Every year, I’ve got to keep on pushing and making changes. I’ve got a lot of good people behind me and Jeff Spencer has a lot of wisdom to push me to the next level, and I hired a riding coach this year—Buddy Antunez—and we’ve been working on a whole lot of things. I figure if these guys are young and they’ve got a few new tricks, then I’ve got to do that myself. I’m working on that along with everybody at Red Bull KTM. The bike’s just getting better and better. You’ve got such a good push behind you—such a good team—that it’s hard to let them down. Good surroundings.”Laninovich hung on for a solid third.”I’m considered a smooth rider so I’m trying to hang it out a little bit more, but these guys are riding really well,” Laninovich said. “So, we’ll just go back and work on the bike, do suspension work and some stuff like that.”Vancouver Supercross Main Event
1. James Stewart (Kaw)
2. Ricky Carmichael (Suz)
3. Chad Reed (Yam)
4. Ivan Tedesco (Suz)
5. Michael Byrne (Kaw)
6. David Vuillemin (Hon)
7. Jason Thomas (Hon)
8. Nick Wey (Hon)
9. Heath Voss (Yam)
10. Jeff Gibson (Hon)
11. Ryan Clark (Hon)
12. Jiri Dostal (Hon)
13. Justin Buckelew (Hon)
14. Tyler Evans (Suz)
15. Kyle Lewis (Hon)
16. Doug DeHaan (Hon)
17. Jacob Marsack (Hon)
18. Keith Johnson (Hon)
19. G. Crater (Hon)
20. Ted Campbell (Hon)Vancouver Lites Main Event
1. Nathan Ramsey (KTM)
2. Davi Millsaps (Hon)
3. Billy Laninovich (Hon)
4. Ryan Sipes (Suz)
5. Andrew Short (Hon)
6. Darcy Lange (Kaw)
7. Josh Hansen (KTM)
8. Ryan Morais (Suz)
9. Jake Weimer (Hon)
10. Michael LaPaglia (Suz)
11. Mitch Cooke (Hon)
12. Dusty Klatt (Hon)
13. Kyle Beaton (Yam)
14. Colton Facciotti (Kaw)
15. Justin Keeney (Hon)
16. Ryan Lockhart (Suz)
17. K. Foster (Kaw)
18. B. Hoyer (Hon)
19. K. VanKyken (Kaw)
20. Brady Sheren (Kaw)
21. P. Ehnate (Kaw)
22. Teddy Maier (Kaw)AMP’D Mobile World Supercross GP Points Standings (After 2 of 17 rounds)
1. James Stewart (50/2 wins)
2. Ricky Carmichael (44)
3. Chad Reed (40)
4. Ivan Tedesco (36)
5. Michael Byrne (31)
6. Nick Wey (29)
7. Jason Thomas (28)
8. Jeff Gibson (23)
9. Justin Buckelew (21)
10. Ryan Clark (18)