More From Anaheim Three - Feature Review - Dirt Rider Magazine

Historically speaking, everyone should've known that what happened at the Anaheim III Supercross was likely to happen this year. But it seems that every year, someone is going to beat Ricky Carmichael, according to the pundits. What happened at Anaheim III isn't new. Year after year, RC remains consistent, on the podium, winning when he can, and waits for his competition to make a mistake. In San Francisco, Chad Reed was the man who had a tough go of it, finishing fifth, two laps down. At Anaheim III, James Stewart fell three times in the opening three laps and finished eighth.Now, just like that, Carmichael enjoys a double-digit points lead only 5 rounds into the 16-round Amp'd Mobile/AMA Supercross Series. The turn of events is no surprise to students of MX history. At the same time, it's far from over.At the same time, the Lites are giving us what we expect—a lot of riders with a chance to win, and many times, extreme inconsistency. Grant Langston has won every race he hasn't fallen or stalled in this year. That is to say, he has won two races. Last week in San Francisco, he finished 15th and lost the points lead to Nathan Ramsey. If he won every race for the rest of the season, and Ramsey finished second in every race, Langston would win the title by two points. We talked to him about it before the race."My goal going into every race is to win, no matter what the track or conditions," Langston said. "That's a lot of the guys' mentality. I'm not a great mud rider because I'm just not real experienced in it, but I'm not a 15th-place guy, either. I should've been in the top five. That's really hard to accept finishing 15th. It's just one of those races where things go from bad to worse. I tried to make some passes early and get up into the front few. I had decent speed early, but I was erratic and made too many mistakes. One crash, and then another one, and another one, and getting stuck... I watched the video footage, and I spent over a minute kickstarting my bike between all of my crashes and I was only like a minute and 25 seconds behind the leaders. So, if you just kind of take that out of the equation, I would've been on the box. But, I mean, it happened. There's nothing much I can do about it now. You always look back and think, 'What if?' or 'If only!' or 'I should've done this better.'"But Langston has a habit of making what should be runaway championships in his favor close. "That's what everyone's telling me," GL said. "I didn't do it intentionally, believe me. But basically, there's no real math involved. I've just got to go out and win. You said if I win all four races and Nathan gets second all four, I'll win it. But, the way our series goes, I don't think you're going to see that happen anyway. I'd like to think that I'd win all four races. I'd love to do that. But there's not enough consistency among everyone to have those kind of finishes. It's just going to be a matter of being ahead of him every weekend—and not just him, but Laninovich, Short, all those guys. The points are pretty tight, and I can't afford to have another blow-up race. Not in a short season. I had one blow-up race last year at Daytona, which is like my favorite track. I go there and I'm like 3 or 4 seconds quicker than everyone every year, and I've never won. That bugs me because I love that place to death. I have fun and I feel so good and my times are always really awesome, but for some odd reason, I don't come home with that first-place trophy. So, as far as this series goes, I just need to go out, get good starts, and win. And if I can't win, it's just got to be a second."Langston says he's heading to the Supercross class next year, and that Pro Circuit is still hoping to field a Supercross-class team—a plan that has been in the works for at least a couple of years. "We don't know yet ," Langston said. "Right now, it's talk, and it's something that between a number of us, we'd like to see happen. It'd be pretty cool if it did. But I don't know if that will happen. Obviously, Mitch and I have spoken that they'd like to have me there. It's something that I know Mitch would like to do, and I'd be interested because I really enjoy working with Mitch, so if it happens, it will definitely be an option."Also riding with PC motors right now is Eric Sorby, who switched to the MotoSport.com/MDK/MSR Honda team after round one. "Since I switched to Motosport, ever since, I mean, everything's the same with training and stuff, but the good thing is that I have a very, very good bike," Sorby said. "Actually, I've raced for 22 years and this is the first time I've had a good bike—like, suspension, the engine is amazing, and everything. I'm pretty excited. The bad thing is that I've had some pretty good races—some good Heat races—but the main event, I guess I've got pretty decent starts, but I always crash in the first six laps. I always have one crash. So I'm pretty pissed off, you know? But I have everything to be in front now. I can't complain about my start, I just blame myself because I crash and I shouldn't. I always try to do my best, and I've been training hard, so hopefully it will pay off today. Actually, at the first four races, except for the first Anaheim—that track was pretty technical—but since Anaheim, we've had some pretty easy tracks, so now if you want to try to pass some riders, you have to try so hard because everyone's the same speed, except like Langston, Andrew and Nathan. So, today, if I get a top-10 start, I'm going to ride the same, but I'm not going to pass the rider quickly. If I have to wait two or three laps, I will, because I don't want to crash for some stupid things. When you crash, it's so hard to pass all of those guys. I don't want to be like I used to be—try to take people out to make a pass and have a bad reputation. I don't want that anymore."Troy Adams has yet to make his Pro Circuit debut, as he suffered a broken femur in the off-season. "Actually, racing, I'm just going to wait until I'm in shape," Adams said. "I've been riding the past two days now. I'm just taking it slow, whatever I can do, and when I can do 20 laps strong without breathing hard, I'll come back racing. But I'm not going to rush it. I'm going to just concentrate on outdoors, and if I can come back for some supercrosses on the east coast, then I definitely will to get some racing under my belt before outdoors." He won't make the start of the east series, no matter what, though. "I'm going to miss the first two or three rounds, so I consider myself out of the points race," Troy said. "I just want to be healthy and 110% for the outdoors. If I can get some racing in for supercross, that's just a bonus."

Richie Owens has been missing from the MotoworldRacing.com/PPG Yamaha team for a couple of weeks. "Richie crashed in Phoenix in his heat race and hurt his shoulder," said team manager Paul Lindsey. "He sat out the week between Phoenix and Anaheim II and tried to ride. He made it half a lap then popped it out again in the first lap of practice. He had gone to the doctor in between Phoenix and Anaheim and didn't find anything. Then he went to a different doctor after Anaheim II and discovered it was dislocated and he's got some soft-tissue damage. They're going to go in this week and do surgery on it. It looks like he'll be out until outdoors. He'd like to try to come back for the last two, but we're probably going to have him wait. Especially in supercross. The motion that popped it out was the jerking. When he did pushups at home, he could do pushups, but the moment he got on the track, you can't simulate that. So, he did more damage to it and made it worse at Anaheim II, so we'll probably have him wait. It's not worth it at this point."For now, the plan for Richie is to race SX-only, but MotoworldRacing.com would like to change that somehow. "Yeah, we'd really like to do something with him outdoors, and we still have that in the back of our minds—a way to figure that out, whether he's in a box van or with us," Lindsey said. "It's really going to depend on injuries, and the 450 thing is still kind of up in the air. He's pretty impressed with the power of the Yamaha 250F, so he might just run the Lites class. So we'll see. One way or another, I think we'll figure out a way to have him out there."BooKoo Honda's David Vuillemin missed first practice on Saturday. "Yeah, we had a new engine that we tried Thursday in Texas, and it was actually better than the one we normally have," DV12 said. "But we put it on, and first practice, it didn't run. So I did a half a lap and then went back. It sucks because if it was Friday practice, it would be all right. But there's no Friday practice anymore, so you need to be on your game right away. I lost a practice, then rode second practice and I did all right. I didn't do the triple out of the turn after the whoops, and that's the only thing I didn't do. The rest I did."In the week preceding Anaheim III, DV won a race back home (check the video at www.dv12.com). Maybe in celebration, little David showed up at Anaheim III with a fresh Mohawk. "He looks like his dad, though, huh? We did that a few weeks ago," DV said. "Maybe he's going to hate me later. He's going to figure out what we did to him, but that's okay."One interesting dynamic of the BooKoo Honda pits is that the BooKoo girls sign more autographs than the riders do. "I don't sign autographs, so... (laughs). It's a men's sport. They like chicks with big boobs," DV said. "That's understandable. Unless you're Hutch (moderator at Mototalk). Or Factory Dad (Spodeboy). www.boycottChicksWithBigBoobs.com."Mike Brown, the last two-stroke hold-out, finally made the switch at Anaheim III. "I don't know, I guess I didn't want to be the oddball out there anymore," Brownie said. "I think it's better. Once I get used to the four-stroke—when I give it more time—I'll feel a little bit better on it. For sure, it's a lot easier to ride and do the jumps on it. Looking back at the two-stroke, and some of the stuff I was trying to do was so much harder than it is now. I'm sure they've both got their good and bad, but this is the new thing. I don't have no more excuses. I'm on the same kind of bike. I'm getting used to it, so it'll be good."Two-stroke guy "I feel like, on this thing, you've got to be more precise on it because it's got so much power and it's easy to over-jump stuff. On a two-stroke, I had it down how far I could jump in each gear. This thing, I think you can jump as far as you want in any gear, I think." But Brown likely won't be on the 450 outdoors. "I think I'll be on the 125," he said. "I can ride any class I want, but I think I'll do the 250F class the first year and maybe do the 450 the next year."We spotted SoBe/Samsung Mobile Honda's Joaquim Rodrigues being wheeled through the pits by his new bride Rita. J-Rod broke his leg a couple of weeks ago. "I was trying to do some triple out of the turn, and the bike slid a little bit and I went over the bars," J-Rod said. "I went over the bars. I tried to jump off, but I got caught by the bike, so it just smashed me into the ground. It broke my leg and hurt my hand. My hand's all right now. If it doesn't kill me, it'll just make me stronger." J-Rod says he hopes to be back for the last couple of supercrosses before heading outdoors.Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy's Brett Metcalfe looked like a new man in practice. "I felt good in practice, so I have a little more confidence. I'm feeling a lot better, I have less injuries and a better bike setup, so..." he said. "I think if you knew how many big crashes I've had in the last month, I've been pretty sore, so last week I felt a lot better, and this week I feel better again. We changed my bike setup and I feel a lot more confident. I think at the first couple rounds, I wasn't feeling real good, and my setup wasn't quite as good as it should've been, but now we're ready. So we'll see what happens. I've got to go out there and get it done." Brett went on to grab his first top five (in a dry race, anyway) of the year in the main event.We spotted a castless Kevin Windham in the pits. He was probably more busy signing autographs all day than he would be when he is racing. "I had a good doctor's visit the other day," K-Dub said. "The ulna is completely healed, and the radius is not quite there yet. It had three fracture lines in it and they had to do a bone graft and stuff, so it has a considerable amount more healing to do. That's the delay at this point. Things are going well. I've been cleared to do full training, weights, road bikes—everything except riding a motorcycle. I should be released to do that in probably three weeks, and three weeks after that, I should be racing. I don't know how things are going to progress once I get back on the bike. Obviously, people want me out there—obviously, my sponsors want me out there, and my fans too, I hope. But there's a big question about how competitive I need to be. Although I have been doing some training, racing's racing, and training's training. But I'm optimistic that I can make it for Orlando, and that will leave the last six rounds of supercross, and that'll be good."K-Dub said before that he needed the time off for his hernia surgery. "Yeah, one surgery was great," he said. "It was kind of the time that I needed. Although surgery's never great, it seems like the only way you get a break in this sport anymore. But, I had that hernia surgery and then followed it up by this crazy get-off, which was totally unexpected, and quite frankly, a stupid little crash. It was like a 20-foot double and it just wasn't supposed to happen, but it did. Sometimes the smallest crashes have the biggest results. I've seen people wad up and get up, brush their shoulders off, get back on the bike and take off. This wasn't the case this time. As soon as I hit, I knew things were bad. Now, I'm just chomping at the bit. I'm way past the break that I needed. I was really looking forward to supercross, to answer your question. Things had been going well. Testing was incredible. The Honda 450 and all of the sponsors coming together with SoBe and Samsung Mobile coming to the team, everything was falling into place, so it was a big letdown. It took the wind out of my sails. But I'll be back. That's the big thing at this point. It's time to start looking ahead."Windham's longtime sponsor No Fear is now sponsoring the entire SoBe/Samsung Mobile Honda team. "We've had some changes in the team and the sponsorships, and No Fear came over and is taking care of the whole team. They're a great sponsor to have," Kevin said. "They've been with me forever, and now they're with the whole team, so I think the whole Factory Connection team, with the help of all of our sponsors—SoBe, Samsung, Honda, No Fear—the teams are coming together. There's a Lite truck and there's a Supercross truck here, and we're getting the uniformity that we need. I'm glad to have all of our sponsors on board." Part of having No Fear on board is that the whole team was running the same gear that K-Dub wore at the MXdN this past year. "I think the stuff looked really, really good. I think everyone liked it," he said. "Now it's kind of coming out. It's good colors, red, white and blue. It was ultra-special for that race, but it looks good here in the States. You should be able to wear red, white and blue anywhere you go."But for the front-runners, it was Ricky Carmichael's third win in five races, and his 130th AMA National win (SX and MX) of his career. But more than anything, he seemed really happy for his teammate Ivan Tedesco's first podium finish. "Definitely. It's great to see a rookie like him come up and get what he's been working for," RC said. "I know he's been wanting to get a podium, and I was happy for him. I just like to see people achieve their goal."Carmichael says it's not just his speed that has won him 3 races and given him the points lead. "You know, Chad and James and even Ivan, it's just a test. It's a test between myself, Chad and James," RC said. "Fortunately, I've been the only guy to be up here. I don't think that every race that I've won hasn't been on just raw speed. It's been a little bit of luck, a little bit of patience, and a little bit of being strong. I think this is probably the first year that I really haven't looked too far ahead of me. I've just been enjoying every weekend. I've had some great battles, and we've been spoiled the last three weeks. I had a good race with Chad there at Phoenix—it was really close. And obviously the second Anaheim and last weekend between James and myself in the mud. So, it's a boring race, but I felt I passed the test tonight."In the heat race, though, RC gave a scare to everyone but his competition as he landed on the face of the third jump of a triple while leading, but amazingly, he went on to win the race after falling back, momentarily, to third. "Actually, I just changed my line in that turn, and before that triple on the left-hand side, it was greasy and I came out of that turn and I was a little to aggressive, and I started to slide sideways," RC said. "I knew if I would've stayed on the gas, it would grip the face of the triple and send me back the other way, so I just let off. I just faced the triple. I got lucky. It wasn't as bad as it looked. I kind of let my body soak it up, and thank god I didn't hurt myself. I'm all good. I struggled at Phoenix and I came out on top, and I told Scott , 'Man, this is going to be another Phoenix tonight. I just need to let it happen.' I just felt tight all weekend. I pumped up a little bit and changed some things on the bike, and it wasn't good, so I just had to run it the rest of the weekend."Carmichael is noted for his sand riding, and there was a sand pit at Anaheim III. "That was a pretty good section," he said. "It was really good in practice, I thought, and when we came around for the hot lap there, the center of the turn was all hooped out, and they left the outsides really smooth, so I don't really know what happened there. I don't know why they did that. It was a cool section, but it only had that one line in the main event. But it was a cool section in the heat race. Anaheim always seems to get a little one-lined just because of the way the dirt forms and just that one groove gets really, really, really good, but I think we only lapped up to 10th place tonight and we're getting some good racing."This may be RC's last season of racing full-time. "As far as '07 goes, nothing's in concrete for me," he said. "But I'm sure I'll race next year. Whether I'll race full-time, I don't know. I'm still working with Suzuki and this and that, and it depends on how the year goes as well. I've had a great career, and if anything, I'll have to train for Anaheim I and that's it!"Chad Reed finished second for the fourth time this season. "It was crazy. I got a really good jump off the start and was driving down there pretty good," Reed said. "I had James there on the inside, and I had Jeremy on the outside. James just lost the front and ran into me, and then I kind of finished Jeremy off just to kind of miss James. There was a lot of other stuff going on that first lap. I think Ernie and Kyle Lewis had a pileup just before the sand, and then Villy the next turn up, so I just wanted to keep it on two wheels, keep it calm, push up to Ivan and then see where I was."Some accuse Reed of being a slow starter. "I think everybody says it because of '03 when I won 6 straight against Ricky," Reed said. "I don't think there's any other reason. In '03, I won my first race and was strong. Other than that, I think I've always been up there at the beginning. I've always enjoyed the East coast tracks a little more, and that doesn't mean I can't win here or do good here, but it does seem like that. I just think I'd try and be in the hunt. That's all I'd try and do."Reed says he doesn't race worried about any one rider. "We're not worried about James," Reed said. "I've got to ride my race. I knew he went down in the first turn, and I knew he was going to push back. When he went down in the first turn, I knew it was going to be a long race for him, just because it was a track that you couldn't try and make something happen. There wasn't a whole lot of passing. There wasn't a whole lot of separation between the slower guys and us. So I knew it was going to be tough for him to get back up there. I was just looking forward to trying to get onto Ivan and see where Ricky was."Chad went down in the sand section in practice, nearly hitting our reporter Steve Cox, whose cat-like reflexes saved him. But Reed did hit photographer Carl Stone. "I was fine. I hurt my ribs a little bit, but I'm fine now," Reed said. "I came out of the turn and grabbed a handful, and it decided to exit right instead of left. I just went off the side of the track. I think Ricky was right behind me there. I guess I just grabbed a bit of a handful too much." Stone was fine, too, with only a few scrapes to show for the drama. He had a sympathy limp the rest of the night, though.Ivan Tedesco's first podium was a goal achieved for him. "I think I reached my goal of a podium tonight, and my next goal is to try and keep on setting goals from here and try to accomplish them," IT said. "It's kind of nice to not have to worry about a championship. I just have to take it one race at a time. Like last year, I was so worried about winning races and winning that championship—and all of that pressure—that it feels good to be racing and trying to do the best that I can. I'm not quite used to running up front yet, but I've been doing it the last four races and I'm feeling more comfortable, and tonight I got tight around lap five or six, and then started going better toward the end. Those three guys are really fast. They're just pulling tenths here and there on me. I don't think it's anything in particular. In the whoops, I've been struggling a little bit, and a little bit everywhere."Tedesco hopes to train with RC soon. "I'm going to head down to his house before Daytona or Orlando," Ivan said. "I'd like to get a place down there and hopefully I can work more with him. He's the best guy to learn from."Tedesco says the mindset is different in the Supercross class than the Lites class. "These guys, they don't make nearly as many mistakes," Hot Sauce said. "They're solid week-in and week-out. That's where I'm learning. I still make little mistakes sometimes and I need to get rid of those to win. I've just got to keep on trying to eliminate those mistakes and keep moving forward."Grant Langston talked about his poor race in San Francisco after winning Anaheim III and taking over the points lead, thanks to a 13th-place ride by Nathan Ramsey. "Obviously, San Francisco was really frustrating for me. I know Andrew wasn't happy with his ride," Langston said. "But the week after a horrible ride just sucks because you're trying not to think about it. You're trying to think about the next race, like you want the race to be the next day because it can only be better, so you know your spirits will be a little higher. I guess one good thing was that I rode all week kind of pissed off, and it was a good thing. I was really determined to try and pull back some of those points."Nathan had a bad evening. I think our results were switched from last week, when he won and I got 15th. I think he got 15th this week. This series has been a bit of a rollercoaster, but I think Andrew's been riding really solid. He's been fast. And I knew before the season that the points would be pretty tight. I don't think it's going to be a runaway victory for anyone."When asked about photographer Steve Bruhn's coon-skin hat, Langston responded: "Whatever takes the focus off his face."BUUUUURRRRNNNN!!!Andrew Short is finally feeling healthy after hurting his leg before Phoenix. "I feel healthy again. I was able to train, and I had a good week," Short said. "I kind of started off the day a little slow, but my heat race was good. I got off to a great start. But I had to step it up a little bit for the main. Grant was riding really good tonight, as was Nathan—but he had a rough night tonight. I knew I was going to have to work for it and fight for it, and I put myself in a really good position for the main event."Short was behind Ramsey when he fell down. "You know, I think his front end slid out," Short said. "It was a really slippery part of the track, and James went down in the same place. I went in the inside and doubled the thing, and my bike kind of hesitated a little bit because I cased it really hard, and I just gassed it. I had a lot of power all of a sudden, and I was looped out. It was pretty scary, and kind of embarrassing, but I pulled it off. After that, I just put my head down and rode as hard as I could."Mike Alessi is starting to make a habit of these podium finishes. "I'm young. I'm like a sponge," he said. "I'm absorbing everything I see and do. That's pretty much it."One thing he learned not to do was to look back so much during the race. "I looked back once or twice just for the lappers, and in the last two laps looking to see if fourth was catching me," Alessi said. "I've been looking around too much because I was just scared and not riding with confidence. Now I'm confident and I feel like I can race with these guys and have it clean and battle. I think that's the biggest thing that I've learned in the last couple races. Basically, it's just different for me. The whoops, and the whole atmosphere is different for me. Outdoors is more me, where I can hold it open and not be scared to let the bike swap side to side. Supercross is a totally different technique and a different riding ability, and I think that's what I'm starting to learn."I'm starting to feel better about what I'm doing in supercross. I'm totally in my comfort zone, and if I feel like I'm on the edge, I'm going to back it down. I'm not out there to get hurt, I'm out there to be racing every Saturday night."Alessi has also committed to race KTMs through 2008. "I just signed on with KTM for another two years," he said. "I like being at KTM. This is a family atmosphere for me and I am going to stick around."