Round two of the Amp’d Mobile/AMA Supercross Series in Phoenix, Arizona, was a night of relative surprises. Following the Anaheim opener, the AMA made a judgment call to tame the tracks down somewhat, after all three of the best supercross racers in the world—James Stewart, Ricky Carmichael and Chad Reed—fell multiple times in practice and the races. The result in Phoenix was a track with more passing opportunities, closer racing, and a new winner for 2006.Supercross legend Jeremy McGrath—now nicknamed “Part-Time” rather than “Showtime”—brought the crowd of more than 50,000 people to life by grabbing the holeshot to start the 250cc main event, and then two turns into the race, pulling his legendary Nac-Nac in front of a field of the world’s best supercross racers. Reed followed second, Ivan Tedesco third, Ernesto Fonseca fourth and Carmichael fifth, while James Stewart found himself getting up from a first-turn crash.”You know, it’s kind of hard to remember. I just know I highsided off somebody and fell,” Stewart said. “I think I was in a rush trying to start the thing. I was just pretty far back.”On lap two, Reed made his way by his idol McGrath, and McGrath held second for the next five laps before Carmichael finally caught him and made a pass stick.”I had seen Chad up there, and we were pretty close lap by lap there, and then I get behind Tedesco, and Chad pulled away a little bit, then I got behind Jeremy, and he pulled away a little bit,” Carmichael said. “I was able to get by MC—it was cool to see him up there, actually—but I thought that James was behind me somewhere, and I could kind of hear the crowd cheering, so once I got into second, I said, `All right. I got a great chance to do it, so I just need to not get loose coming out of the turns and nail that rhythm lane every lap.’”At that point, Stewart was already up to 6th, only 7 laps into the race.However, just after Carmichael moved into second, Reed made a huge mistake and went down, actually catching a handlebar to the chin and getting his helmet’s face mask stuck on his handlebar momentarily.”Yeah, the track was slick, and the side of the jump was kind of worn away a little bit, and I just hit it—and I don’t remember if I lost the front or I lost the rear, but it kind of just went sideways, and the actual handlebar went into my helmet and it got stuck on my handlebars,” Reed said. “I had to sort of do the Ryan Hughes and unhook there a little bit and get ready to go again.”He got up quickly, only losing about 6 seconds to Carmichael, but the damage was done. Carmichael was within sight of Reed, and he began to hound the former champion. Three laps later, Reed messed up the rhythm section, and Carmichael jumped alongside him before pushing him into the Tuff Blox on the outside of the track to complete the pass.”Well, if I would’ve shut off, he was already angling over, so I knew I had to go, and I came up with a lot of speed off the triple, and I just held my speed,” Carmichael said. “I had to bring him to the outside, or he was going to go by me, so I did what I had to do, and in not the ugliest fashion. So, that’s all. We both stayed upright and did battle after that.”But Carmichael ran scared down the following straightaway after seat-bouncing the triple while Reed was forced to double it.”I figured I pissed him off, probably, from the pass, so I’m like, `Well, he’s probably going to try to drill me in the turn after the whoops,’” Carmichael said. “So I tried to keep my speed up through there. I really angled the turn good so as to not really give him a chance.”From there, Carmichael slowly stretched his lead, eventually winning by 2.6 seconds over Reed. Carmichael also set the fastest lap of the main event.Carmichael now shares the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Championship points lead with James Stewart, as Stewart amazingly recovered from his start crash to finish on the podium behind Reed.When asked what he was thinking when he went down, Stewart replied: “Championship. You can’t win it in three races, but you can certainly lose it here. The main thing was I was trying to get up and collect points. I knew I was good enough to get on the box tonight, and I felt like I had the speed, but when I was down there, I was trying to think of the championship. It’s not a one-race shootout.”Reed wasn’t happy with second.”I felt good. I got a good start, did what I had to do, and I felt I was putting some good laps together, and then I made a little mistake in the section that I crashed on,” Reed said. “I should’ve really changed up my line a little sooner, but it bit me and Ricky closed the gap, and then I made another small mistake, but I felt like I gave that one away tonight. I felt like I was in control, and it was a tough track. We were all so even, and I knew that no one of us could really take leaps and bounds out of each other’s lead, so I was just trying to go through the motions and the track bit me.”But Carmichael recorded his first win of the season for the second season in a row in Phoenix.”It’s good. I’m just trying to have patience and enjoy the moment,” Carmichael said. “We’ve got the three best guys up here, and I’m just glad to be a part of it. I’ve got a lot of respect for these guys, and may the best man win. It’s definitely going to be deserved, whoever of the three of us wins [the championship], and hopefully we can all stay healthy—that’s the main thing—and give the fans of the sport what they wanted to see.”250cc Main:
1. Ricky Carmichael (Suz)
2. Chad Reed (Yam)
3. James Stewart (Kaw)
4. Jeremy McGrath (Hon)
5. Nick Wey (Hon)
6. Michael Byrne (Kaw)
7. Ernesto Fonseca (Hon)
8. Mike LaRocco (Hon)
9. Ivan Tedesco (Suz)
10. David Vuillemin (Yam)
11. Travis Preston (Hon)
12. Jeff Gibson (Hon)
13. Ryan Clark (Hon)
14. Clark Stiles (Yam)
15. Timmy Ferry (Hon)
16. Mike Brown (Suz)
17. Jason Thomas (Hon)
18. Erick Vallejo (Hon)
19. Tyler Evans (Suz)
20. Robbie Reynard (Hon)Amp’d Mobile/AMA 250cc Supercross Championship Points Standings
(After 2 of 16 rounds):
1. (TIE) Ricky Carmichael (45/1 win)/James Stewart (45/1 win)
3. Chad Reed (44)
4. Mike LaRocco (31)
5. Nick Wey (30)
6. Ernesto Fonseca (29)
7. (TIE) Jeremy McGrath/Ivan Tedesco (28)
9. Michael Byrne (27)
10. Travis Preston (23)Amp’d Mobile World Supercross GP Championship (After 4 of 17 rounds):
1. James Stewart (95/3 wins)
2. Ricky Carmichael (89/1 win)
3. Chad Reed (84)
4. Ivan Tedesco (69)
5. Nick Wey (63)
6. Michael Byrne (62)
7. Jeff Gibson (50)
8. Jason Thomas (49)
9. Ryan Clark (42)
10. Justin Buckelew (33).Lites Class
Red Bull KTM’s Nathan Ramsey won as many 125cc supercrosses last season as anybody. He even added to them with a win in Vancouver last December. However, when the first Anaheim rolled around, Nate Dog was picking himself up off of the ground much more often than he would’ve liked and ended up 12th, while expected championship rivals Andrew Short and Grant Langston finished 1st and 4th, respectively.But when Phoenix rolled around, Ramsey was bound and determined to redeem himself and get back into the championship fight.He did both.Honda’s Short got out to the early lead with fast-starting rookie Ryan Villopoto hot on his heels, followed by Star Racing’s Sean Collier, Ramsey and Darcy Lange, while Langston suffered a first-lap stall and rounded the opening circuit 19th.”Actually, all I wanted to do was get a good start because my starts have been horrible lately, and I got a good jump and came into the first turn, and it was pretty tight the way the start was set up,” Langston said. “I think by the time everything settled, I got into about fourth place, and I don’t know what I did, but I stalled it in the switchback turns, which was pretty dumb, and it was really frustrating. Luckily, there was no microphone in my helmet, because I was yelling some mean things to myself. So, I was aggravated, and I started thinking of all of the negatives, like, `I’m out of the championship,’ and stuff. Fortunately, my bike started, for a four-stroke, pretty quick.”Short only led Villopoto for a lap before he and Villopoto went down together in a heap in the left-side “split start” section, which handed the lead to Collier, and second to Ramsey.”It’s pretty interesting in the first turns, things were happening in every race,” Ramsey said. “There was some bumping going on and I ended up coming out halfway decent, and the first few laps in that class is pretty chaotic, and you just try to be smart and try to make some moves and move up if you’re behind. I seen Grant stall his bike, and then I seen Short and Villopoto wad up in that corner, and I was like, `Okay. This is your turn.’ Last weekend didn’t go too good, and it’s a tough class. There’s a lot of fast guys, and anything can happen, so I just tried to put my head down and be as smooth as I could.”He made the move by Collier for the lead on lap 4, and Collier hung tough behind the former 125cc champ.In the meantime, Langston, Villopoto, Short and Laninovich were all working their way toward the front. Laninovich got there first, landing third on lap six, but it wasn’t long before Short, then Langston, and then Villopoto—who ended up with the fastest lap of the main event on the last lap of the race—joined him. The four-rider freight train worked their way around the track behind Collier with nary a pass until the second-to-last lap, when Laninovich finally made a pass stick on Collier. Some of the riders in the group were surprised by the white flag the next time around.”The race went by pretty quick,” Langston said. “I only knew that we were almost done when I saw the white flag, and that’s when I’m like, `All right, I’ve got to get by.’”It became a mad scramble to the finish, as Short, Langston and Villopoto all went by Collier, and then with only two turns left, Langston made an aggressive move to the inside of Short for third.”It was so slippery that you couldn’t cut in and out of the berms very efficiently—especially toward the end, because the track was deteriorating for us,” Langston said. “It was tough. I probably could’ve made an aggressive pass a few laps earlier, but the problem is, you stuff someone here to get the gap, and then another guy comes and stuffs you back, and then all of a sudden you’re all holding each other up. So, at that point, we all had a pretty good pace going. I didn’t know where I was—I didn’t look at my pitboard once, because coming onto the start straight, I was always sideways, and I had Billy and Andrew and all of them in front of me, and it was dusty, and all I knew was if the two guys went left, I went right, and if the two guys went right, I went left. It was kind of like picking and choosing, but I think it was a good race, and on that last lap, I got really close to Andrew, and I was thinking, `Man, this is the last lap. I need to make things happen on the last lap. I need to be on the podium.’ So I was right beside him in that turn by the whoops, and I squared it to go on/off, and he was on the outside, and I snuck underneath him. I think he was kind of skidding the rear end around. He went to turn down, and I was there, and we bumped. I believe Villopoto went by there as well. It was a pretty crazy last lap.”Villopoto did. That made the finishing order Ramsey, with Laninovich just over a second behind. Langston, Villopoto, Short and Collier rounded out the top six.Now, with one race, Ramsey sees himself only eight points out of first in the championship with six races to race.”Well, after last weekend, I came out of that one a little ways behind, so anything can happen,” Ramsey said. “Everyone seems to be riding good, and there’s a lot of guys on the same second, and starts are super-important and I want to do everything I can—I’ll go home, I’ll continue to do my homework, work my program, and put the Red Bull KTM up front.”Laninovich’s consistent 3-2 finishes at Anaheim and Phoenix have him in the points lead for the first time in his career.”I want to win a championship, and that’s my whole goal this year, but I’m not even thinking about that,” Laninovich said. “We still have six races and I’m just going to go out there and do my best and try to get on the podium every weekend. I think consistency is going to win the championship. There are a lot of guys that do good one weekend, and then do bad the next weekend, and my whole goal is just to get on the podium.”Lites Main:
1. Nathan Ramsey (KTM)
2. Billy Laninovich (Hon)
3. Grant Langston (Kaw)
4. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
5. Andrew Short (Hon)
6. Sean Collier (Yam)
7. Paul Carpenter (Hon)
8. Darcy Lange (Kaw)
9. Brett Metcalfe (Yam)
10. Mike Alessi (KTM)
11. Jake Weimer (Hon)
12. Jesse Casillas (Hon)
13. Eric Sorby (Hon)
14. Kyle Partridge (Yam)
15. Jeff Dement (Suz)
16. Mike Sleeter (KTM)
17. Billy Swapp (Kaw)
18. Justin Keeney (Hon)
19. Rodrig Thain (Kaw)
20. Jason Lawrence (Suz)
21. Justin Brayton (Yam)
22. Andrew McFarlane (Yam)2006 Lites Western Regional Supercross Championship Points Standings
(After 2 of 8 rounds):
1. Billy Laninovich (42)
2. Andrew Short (41/1 win)
3. Ryan Villopoto (40)
4. Grant Langston (38)
5. Nathan Ramsey (34/1 win)
6. (TIE) Darcy Lange/Paul Carpenter (29)
8. Brett Metcalfe (25)
9. Jake Weimer (24)
10. Mike Alessi (23)Click here for More From the Phoenix Supercross
1. Ricky Carmichael (Suz)
2. Chad Reed (Yam)
3. James Stewart (Kaw)
4. Jeremy McGrath (Hon)
5. Nick Wey (Hon)
6. Michael Byrne (Kaw)
7. Ernesto Fonseca (Hon)
8. Mike LaRocco (Hon)
9. Ivan Tedesco (Suz)
10. David Vuillemin (Yam)
11. Travis Preston (Hon)
12. Jeff Gibson (Hon)
13. Ryan Clark (Hon)
14. Clark Stiles (Yam)
15. Timmy Ferry (Hon)
16. Mike Brown (Suz)
17. Jason Thomas (Hon)
18. Erick Vallejo (Hon)
19. Tyler Evans (Suz)
20. Robbie Reynard (Hon)Amp’d Mobile/AMA 250cc Supercross Championship Points Standings
(After 2 of 16 rounds):
1. (TIE) Ricky Carmichael (45/1 win)/James Stewart (45/1 win)
3. Chad Reed (44)
4. Mike LaRocco (31)
5. Nick Wey (30)
6. Ernesto Fonseca (29)
7. (TIE) Jeremy McGrath/Ivan Tedesco (28)
9. Michael Byrne (27)
10. Travis Preston (23)Amp’d Mobile World Supercross GP Championship (After 4 of 17 rounds):
1. James Stewart (95/3 wins)
2. Ricky Carmichael (89/1 win)
3. Chad Reed (84)
4. Ivan Tedesco (69)
5. Nick Wey (63)
6. Michael Byrne (62)
7. Jeff Gibson (50)
8. Jason Thomas (49)
9. Ryan Clark (42)
10. Justin Buckelew (33).Lites Class
Red Bull KTM’s Nathan Ramsey won as many 125cc supercrosses last season as anybody. He even added to them with a win in Vancouver last December. However, when the first Anaheim rolled around, Nate Dog was picking himself up off of the ground much more often than he would’ve liked and ended up 12th, while expected championship rivals Andrew Short and Grant Langston finished 1st and 4th, respectively.But when Phoenix rolled around, Ramsey was bound and determined to redeem himself and get back into the championship fight.He did both.Honda’s Short got out to the early lead with fast-starting rookie Ryan Villopoto hot on his heels, followed by Star Racing’s Sean Collier, Ramsey and Darcy Lange, while Langston suffered a first-lap stall and rounded the opening circuit 19th.”Actually, all I wanted to do was get a good start because my starts have been horrible lately, and I got a good jump and came into the first turn, and it was pretty tight the way the start was set up,” Langston said. “I think by the time everything settled, I got into about fourth place, and I don’t know what I did, but I stalled it in the switchback turns, which was pretty dumb, and it was really frustrating. Luckily, there was no microphone in my helmet, because I was yelling some mean things to myself. So, I was aggravated, and I started thinking of all of the negatives, like, `I’m out of the championship,’ and stuff. Fortunately, my bike started, for a four-stroke, pretty quick.”Short only led Villopoto for a lap before he and Villopoto went down together in a heap in the left-side “split start” section, which handed the lead to Collier, and second to Ramsey.”It’s pretty interesting in the first turns, things were happening in every race,” Ramsey said. “There was some bumping going on and I ended up coming out halfway decent, and the first few laps in that class is pretty chaotic, and you just try to be smart and try to make some moves and move up if you’re behind. I seen Grant stall his bike, and then I seen Short and Villopoto wad up in that corner, and I was like, `Okay. This is your turn.’ Last weekend didn’t go too good, and it’s a tough class. There’s a lot of fast guys, and anything can happen, so I just tried to put my head down and be as smooth as I could.”He made the move by Collier for the lead on lap 4, and Collier hung tough behind the former 125cc champ.In the meantime, Langston, Villopoto, Short and Laninovich were all working their way toward the front. Laninovich got there first, landing third on lap six, but it wasn’t long before Short, then Langston, and then Villopoto—who ended up with the fastest lap of the main event on the last lap of the race—joined him. The four-rider freight train worked their way around the track behind Collier with nary a pass until the second-to-last lap, when Laninovich finally made a pass stick on Collier. Some of the riders in the group were surprised by the white flag the next time around.”The race went by pretty quick,” Langston said. “I only knew that we were almost done when I saw the white flag, and that’s when I’m like, `All right, I’ve got to get by.’”It became a mad scramble to the finish, as Short, Langston and Villopoto all went by Collier, and then with only two turns left, Langston made an aggressive move to the inside of Short for third.”It was so slippery that you couldn’t cut in and out of the berms very efficiently—especially toward the end, because the track was deteriorating for us,” Langston said. “It was tough. I probably could’ve made an aggressive pass a few laps earlier, but the problem is, you stuff someone here to get the gap, and then another guy comes and stuffs you back, and then all of a sudden you’re all holding each other up. So, at that point, we all had a pretty good pace going. I didn’t know where I was—I didn’t look at my pitboard once, because coming onto the start straight, I was always sideways, and I had Billy and Andrew and all of them in front of me, and it was dusty, and all I knew was if the two guys went left, I went right, and if the two guys went right, I went left. It was kind of like picking and choosing, but I think it was a good race, and on that last lap, I got really close to Andrew, and I was thinking, `Man, this is the last lap. I need to make things happen on the last lap. I need to be on the podium.’ So I was right beside him in that turn by the whoops, and I squared it to go on/off, and he was on the outside, and I snuck underneath him. I think he was kind of skidding the rear end around. He went to turn down, and I was there, and we bumped. I believe Villopoto went by there as well. It was a pretty crazy last lap.”Villopoto did. That made the finishing order Ramsey, with Laninovich just over a second behind. Langston, Villopoto, Short and Collier rounded out the top six.Now, with one race, Ramsey sees himself only eight points out of first in the championship with six races to race.”Well, after last weekend, I came out of that one a little ways behind, so anything can happen,” Ramsey said. “Everyone seems to be riding good, and there’s a lot of guys on the same second, and starts are super-important and I want to do everything I can—I’ll go home, I’ll continue to do my homework, work my program, and put the Red Bull KTM up front.”Laninovich’s consistent 3-2 finishes at Anaheim and Phoenix have him in the points lead for the first time in his career.”I want to win a championship, and that’s my whole goal this year, but I’m not even thinking about that,” Laninovich said. “We still have six races and I’m just going to go out there and do my best and try to get on the podium every weekend. I think consistency is going to win the championship. There are a lot of guys that do good one weekend, and then do bad the next weekend, and my whole goal is just to get on the podium.”Lites Main:
1. Nathan Ramsey (KTM)
2. Billy Laninovich (Hon)
3. Grant Langston (Kaw)
4. Ryan Villopoto (Kaw)
5. Andrew Short (Hon)
6. Sean Collier (Yam)
7. Paul Carpenter (Hon)
8. Darcy Lange (Kaw)
9. Brett Metcalfe (Yam)
10. Mike Alessi (KTM)
11. Jake Weimer (Hon)
12. Jesse Casillas (Hon)
13. Eric Sorby (Hon)
14. Kyle Partridge (Yam)
15. Jeff Dement (Suz)
16. Mike Sleeter (KTM)
17. Billy Swapp (Kaw)
18. Justin Keeney (Hon)
19. Rodrig Thain (Kaw)
20. Jason Lawrence (Suz)
21. Justin Brayton (Yam)
22. Andrew McFarlane (Yam)2006 Lites Western Regional Supercross Championship Points Standings
(After 2 of 8 rounds):
1. Billy Laninovich (42)
2. Andrew Short (41/1 win)
3. Ryan Villopoto (40)
4. Grant Langston (38)
5. Nathan Ramsey (34/1 win)
6. (TIE) Darcy Lange/Paul Carpenter (29)
8. Brett Metcalfe (25)
9. Jake Weimer (24)
10. Mike Alessi (23)Click here for More From the Phoenix Supercross
