Ricky Carmichael Regains Points Lead at Daytona Supercross

Last year's Daytona Supercross was a surprise. Yamaha's Chad Reed went into Ricky Carmichael's back yard and took down the four-time Daytona winner. Last week in Indianapolis, Carmichael vowed revenge.

"Well, you know, Dirt Wurx is building it this year, so I have no idea what it's going to be like," Carmichael said. "I have my deal, and I'm definitely going to put more time into it this year than I did last year. I'm not going to go in there over-confident and get my ass kicked, so I'm definitely looking for a little revenge, and I'll do my best."

Unfortunately, Reed took a spill at his private outdoor practice track the day before the Daytona Supercross, and he separated his right shoulder in the fall. He was just hoping for a podium finish in Daytona.

"Just yesterday, I was riding at the house getting ready for today, and I swapped in the sand whoops on my outdoor track," Reed said. "It was just one of those things that can happen any time that jumps up and reminds you that you have to be on your toes at all times. I'm just kind of happy to get through this. Yesterday, there was no way I thought I was going to be able to ride, so I'm just kind of excited to be up here on the podium. I kind of had my mind set on third place tonight."

This development pretty much left it up to Carmichael and James Stewart to battle it out for the win. Stewart grabbed the holeshot with Reed second and Carmichael third, and it took Carmichael a while to get around his Aussie rival while Stewart was streaking away out front.

"I would've liked to have been able to catch him, but I got stuck behind Chad for a couple laps there, and I seen James kind of stretching out, so I had my work cut out for me," Carmichael said.

But as soon as Carmichael got into second, Stewart went flying off the track, endoing over a berm and out of the lead.

"The lap that he fell, I had a really good line through the hoops and I kind of inched up on him, and then he fell," Carmichael said. "At that point, it was over, but I knew I had my work cut out for me, even though I knew I had the strength and I figured I could close up on him there at the end."

From there, the race was essentially over. Carmichael went on to win by over 30 seconds over the ailing Reed. It was Carmichael's record 5th Daytona Supercross win, breaking a tie between him and mentor Jeff Stanton.

"You know, I'm great friends with Jeff, and he's right, the first one's always special," Carmichael said. "I can remember my first one today like it WAS today. It was a great race for me. To break Jeff Stanton's record, it's great just to win five times, much less break somebody's record. I don't have much to say about it other than I'm pumped to have won here five times. I wish it wouldn't have been his that I had to have broken, just because he's such a good guy."

Carmichael took the points lead with the win, too, but only two points ahead of Reed with six races left. Reed hung on for second.

"It was tough," Reed said. "I knew yesterday when I fell, I was just like, `Man, why Daytona?' I was really looking forward to the race to begin with, and if you're going to get hurt and have to push through something, Daytona is not the one you really want to do it at. But it is what it is, and walking the track today, I was just trying to see places where I could try and be smooth and relax. Normally, any other weekend, I would've been jumping up and down for how big the whoops were, and this weekend, I was actually looking forward to some smooth, small ones because of my situation. But it's all right. I'm happy to get out of here and tough through it. It was hard. I've ridden with a dislocated shoulder before, and that didn't seem so bad, but this is pretty bad."

Fellow Aussie and Stewart's Kawasaki teammate Michael Byrne grabbed third.

"It's always great to have two Aussies on the podium for our country and I'm sure they're all happy back home about that," Byrne said. "As far as how hard it has been to get on the podium, I've had some great battles with Ivan and Nick and LaRocco and Ernesto, and we're all so close, it seemed like whichever one got the start would be there. I hadn't really had that many great starts in the final. Tonight, I got a good start and I just went for it on the start. That's really what you need to do. You need to get away with these guys on the start and try and separate yourself because when there's only half a second in laptimes, if you get away at the start, they're never going to catch you. I just put my head down and went for it. Travis Preston and I had a great battle, and fortunately for me I think I wore him down a little bit, got a little cushion, and went on from there."

Supercross Main Event:
1. Ricky Carmichael (Suz)
2. Chad Reed (Yam)
3. Michael Byrne (Kaw)
4. Travis Preston (Hon)
5. Nick Wey (Hon)
6. James Stewart (Kaw)
7. Ivan Tedesco (Suz)
8. Timmy Ferry (Hon)
9. Billy Laninovich (Hon)
10. Heath Voss (Yam)
11. Jeff Dement (Suz)
12. Jason Thomas (Hon)
13. Ryan Clark (Hon)
14. Tyler Evans (Suz)
15. Mike Brown (Suz)
16. Michael Young (Hon)
17. Erick Vallejo (Hon)
18. Jiri Dostal (Yam)
19. Jacob Saylor (Hon)
20. Jeff Gibson (Hon)

2006 Amp'd Mobile/AMA Supercross Series Points Standings
(After 10 of 16 rounds):
1. Ricky Carmichael (215/6 wins)
2. Chad Reed (213/1 win)
3. James Stewart (189/3 wins)
4. Ivan Tedesco (158)
5. Michael Byrne (152)
6. Nick Wey (149)
7. Ernesto Fonseca (125)
8. Travis Preston (121)
9. Mike LaRocco (108)
10. Ryan Clark (76)

Lites Class

Davi Millsaps has been nearly completely dominant in this year's AMA Lites Eastern Regional Supercross Championship. The only race he lost (round two in Atlanta), he crashed out of the lead. Coming into Daytona, he was a clear favorite. And when the riders saw the gigantic whoops, the odds swung even more into his favor.

"They started off like normal whoops, pretty much, and then they got to the point where they were really big, and they weren't too far apart—the first two big ones—but after that is when they had that big spread," Millsaps said. "I just didn't think of them being big and far apart because you could be intimidated by them, so I think a lot of people were looking at them like, `I've got to skim these? Oh my god. What are these things?' It just gets in your head."

Unlike the normal Millsaps, he got a great start in the main, and would've had the holeshot if not for fast-starter Chris Gosselaar. It didn't last long, though.

"Yeah, I was pumped I got the holeshot," Gosselaar said. "I thought I made some more money there, but unfortunately there's no holeshot check this week. I got the holeshot, and when I came around to the whoops the first lap, I knew that it was my weak point. Davi was behind me and just blew by me like I was standing still. The first couple laps, I need to work on."

Millsaps zipped into the lead, and although he had pressure for the first couple laps from round-two winner Josh Grant, he eventually checked out for his third win in four races.

"It's definitely a surprise," Millsaps said of his dominance this year. "I came into the class last year and I won the first one, and I was hoping to just be consistent. I've been working on consistency this past off-season, and I think it's paying off. I'm just trying to be consistent. I'm not worried about the championship, I'm just taking it one race at a time."

Grant hung onto second, although he says he barely hung onto the bike at all a few times through the whoops.

"I don't know, I didn't get a good start, but I made the best of it," Grant said. "I started behind Davi and these guys. Luckily, I was able to get past a few guys in the whoops and I was in second. The rest of the track was good, but I struggled in the whoops again. That's one thing I'm going to work on next week. That's where I lost time. Pretty much, I just closed my eyes and when I made it through this lap, so let's go again."

Gosselaar fell back to fourth in the early going, but then hounded Branden Jesseman for the final podium spot until it paid off—literally.

"I either have to win a heat race or finish top three in the main [to get paid]," Gosselaar said. "I didn't do it in the heat race, so I knew I had to pull it together in the main. Jesseman, he got around me in the beginning, so I followed him... Yeah, I thought about the money a little bit. That was a big night of racing for me."

Lites Main Event:
1. Davi Millsaps (Hon)
2. Josh Grant (Hon)
3. Chris Gosselaar (Kaw)
4. Tommy Hahn (Hon);
5. Branden Jesseman (Yam)
6. Kelly Smith (Hon)
7. Josh Summey (Hon)
8. Bryan Johnson (Yam)
9. Jay Marmont (KTM)
10. Michael Blose (Hon)
11. Tucker Hibbert (Yam)
12. Dusty Klatt (Hon)
13. Bobby Kiniry (Hon)
14. Zach Osborne (KTM)
15. Greg Schnell (Suz)
16. Chad Johnson (Yam)
17. Chad Ward (Hon)
18. Matt Walker (Yam)
19. Josh Lichtle (Yam)
20. Martin Davalos (Yam)
21. Josh Hansen (KTM)
22. Willy Browning (Suz)

Amp'd Mobile/AMA Lites Eastern Regional Supercross Series Points Standings
(After 4 of 7 rounds):
1. Davi Millsaps (97/3 wins)
2. Chris Gosselaar (74)
3. Josh Grant (69/1 win)
4. Branden Jesseman (68)
5. Bobby Kiniry (49)
6. Tommy Hahn (47)
7. Josh Hansen (38)
8. Kelly Smith (37)
9. Sean Hamblin (36)
10. Teddy Maier (33)