More From Detroit Supercross - Feature Review - Dirt Rider Magazine

James Stewart was a good two seconds a lap faster in Orlando last week, so to some, it seems that anything less than that this week in Detroit could be viewed as a victory of sorts for anyone else. Sure, that's not how Ricky Carmichael or even Chad Reed would take it...As it turned out, Stewart went on another romp to victory in Detroit, but this time he was less than 2-tenths of a second off of Carmichael's fastest time—49.061 to Stewart's 48.817—both of which occurred on lap 6 of the main event. Stewart credits his incredible speed in Orlando at least partially to the dirt. "I think the track was more technical this week, but last week in Orlando, with all of the ruts and the way the whoops got broken down, I think it separated us a little more," Stewart said. "I liked that dirt, it was pretty cool. This week, it was just about trying to stay up and trying to put in some good laps."The battle for second was really the big deal, as Carmichael and Reed went back and forth through traffic, often resulting in pretty aggressive passes and re-passes. "I think we're just pushing and getting into lappers, and it would kind of go his way, my way, and we would get going back and forth," Reed said. "Once I started doing what those guys were doing in the rhythm section, I felt that I could put the rest of the track together a little better, so I concentrated on that and once he passed me, it just turned into a cat-and-mouse game where I'd go up the inside and he'd wait and turn back underneath. I just tried to put some solid laps together and not let him get away." At just past the halfway point, RC stuffed Reed pretty solidly, and then held him up in the turn to make sure he could keep the lead. "I think we were definitely pushing," Reed said. "He wasn't letting up, and I wasn't letting up, and I had the inside on the first left and I was just trying to get across so he couldn't get around, and once he got that little break, he took me wide in the next one. It's just kind of a tit-for-tat thing, and we were kind of battling through the lappers."RC had basically the same view of the situation. "It was tough. It always seems like I was passing on the outside, same for Daytona," RC said. "We were both riding hard, and obviously he didn't want me to get by him, so I had the advantage on the next one, and I kind of pinned us up in the corner there and got by. Everything was good, and then I got hung up behind the lappers. The lappers were bad tonight, there's not doubt about it. Normally, I don't have a problem, but it just seemed like there was nowhere for them to go. When I almost crashed, when Chad got by me, I just went on the inside because there's a lot of people on the outside, and they just came to a stop and I ran into them and almost fell down. Then Chad got back by me and I had to bust my butt to get back by. I'd definitely like to try to see something happen with that. It's tough. Especially in the whoops. We could get by the guys if there was an alternate line. It just seemed like there was one line right down the middle, so it was tough on all of us. It was bad for me there, and bad for Chad, and I'm sure it was bad for James." RC ended up second, with Reed third.The other key battle on track was between Nick Wey, Ivan Tedesco and Michael Byrne for 4th through 6th. Wey ran fourth for much of the race, only for Tedesco to run him down and pass him, and then the battle turned into a Wey/Byrne affair. The two traded block passes until, on the last lap, Byrne went under Wey and they both went down. Wey lost his temper a bit. "Well, you know, I felt like I was riding faster than him and Ivan, and lappers kind of got in the way, and I almost went down and Byrne got me back," Wey said. "He was riding well, but when I passed him, I passed him clean, twice, and this was the second occasion where he's roughed me up pretty hard on the last lap. That ain't cool. I'm not that into it. I'm not just going to roll over and be like, 'Dude, you know, that was a great ride, bro! Thanks for taking me out!' 'Bro, dude, are you okay? That was a sick take-out!' So... But I got him. The Honda started before the Kawi. We both crashed. There was sparks. I think I got my thumb stuck in the rear tire. I'm all right, though. You can't hurt steel. (laughs)"Byrne was less jubilant about the matter. "I was in front of them at the start, but I just didn't hit my lines at the start," Byrne said. "The lines that I was using in the heat race, they weren't there in the final. Those guys got by me, and I just had to switch it up. I started taking their lines a little bit, and they got away from me, but once I got those lines down, I started making up the time again. We had a good back-and-forth battle. There were a lot of lappers, and I got by Nick a couple times, and he actually stuffed me a few times at the end of the combination section, and I knew he was on the inside of me, so I just let him have it. The last lap, I just got on the inside of him and I didn't expect him to cut down as much as he did on the berm, and when he cut down, I was already there, and it's just the way it goes. He was obviously pissed off. He come over and hit me before I even got going again, so whatever, but I'm sure he would've done the same thing.We're battling for fourth position of the championship. And it's not like I did it on the second lap. I wasn't trying to be dirty or anything. I want to do the best that I can, you know? And it is what it is. If he can't handle that, he shouldn't have been trying to stuff me in those corners and not expecting it back. You can't do it and not expect it back—especially on the last lap." As it turns out, Byrne and Wey were the last two riders on the lead lap, so no matter how long they were down, they could finish no worse than sixth. "I didn't know that at the time, so I was just trying to get my bike started, and I rushed it a little bit and flooded it and just lost a lot of time right there," Byrne said. "I nearly got it fired first kick, and it didn't quite fire, and then I knew it was going to be tough after that."It wasn't all in the fighting for Wey, though, as during opening ceremonies, he walked down through the crowd in a Detroit Pistons jersey and a giant black afro. "Well, I've been a fan of the Pistons for a while," Wey said. "Ben Wallace, he's one of my favorite players, so I had a Ben Wallace jersey, and my brother had an afro for me to use, so it seemed like a good time to bust it out. I guess he's an old Jeff Emig fan."Timmy Ferry has been showing a marked improvement of late, as he busted inside the top 10 in points a couple races ago and continues to put in solid rides. "I think the main thing is I finally got to do some testing with Mike Battista at MB1," Ferry said. "I had a half a day right before Anaheim III with him until a few weeks ago, when he came out to my house in Florida and I got a whole day of suspension testing in. I feel comfortable now. I feel like I can ride. The bike, I'm comfortable with. I rode a Yamaha for a long time, so it's been a big change, and to jump to a privateer team with no testing was a little bit of an adjustment. But I think MotoXXX is figuring things out.I'm top-10 in points, which going into the year, I was like, 'Yeah, no problem. No problem.' But after the first few races, I was like, 'Okay, I've got my work cut out for me here.' I was a little off the mark from what I thought I would be. I kept plugging away, and every time I asked something of Allen Brown at MotoXXX, he did what he could to make it happen, whether it be different exhausts, or Dunlop coming out and doing some tire testing. I've used Bridgestones forever, and just to get a few days with the Dunlop guys was a big help just to learn their tires. When you ride for one team and you have one sponsor for so long, it's hard to adjust, and I think I'm finally getting there. A lot of times, not to talk bad about Bridgestone, but I would use the same tire everywhere, and I think that's the way it will be once I get familiar with the Dunlops. It's what you're comfortable with. Sometimes guys nowadays are running hard-pack tires at Southwick, which a couple years ago, we would've been like, 'No way.' So things are changing, and I'm just trying to adapt."Ferry hopes to stay healthy so that he can make a bigger splash outdoors. "My whole goal was to be in the top-10 indoors, but more importantly, to be healthy and in shape for the outdoors," Timmy said. "It takes a long time to come back from injuries. You see it every day. Heath Voss got hurt, and Windham has just come back, so I want to be 100% come outdoor time, and I'm looking forward to getting up and beating some of those factory guys."Ferry's teammate Kyle Lewis made his return to action in Detroit after sitting out a couple of races with a facial fracture. "It's good. I'm uglier than ever. Everything's good," Lewis said. "I had a hairline fracture of the orbital plateau at the bottom part of my eye. Nothing crazy. I didn't need surgery. The biggest thing is I took my time with the concussion. I didn't feel right for about a week, and then a week and a half afterward, I started riding. I just didn't feel 100%, so I took the Orlando weekend off and rode quite a bit. I feel okay now. I'll just see how it goes this weekend."Brock Sellards made his BooKoo Honda debut in Detroit. "You know, I got offered a couple deals to do it, but I wanted to stay pretty loyal to Honda and Parts Unlimited—Thor—and also my other sponsors if I could, you know, like Fulmer helmets, who have really helped me out a lot this year," Brock said. "It just so happened that they came to me and asked if I would be interested, and I'm like, 'Sure!' Because, really, all I'm going off of is what my sponsors pay me for the races. I got to get there on my own and pay for everything on my own. I just make money getting into the main and stuff, so it was perfect. This is their bike. My bike has so much time on it... I went the whole arenacross series on it, and so far the whole supercross series on it. It's got a lot of time on it. I've never changed no main bearings on it, no nothing. I never even changed a piston. I only put a new ring in it, so it was ready to grenade. I'm really glad to be on a fresh bike."The Tamer Honda team debuted an additional sponsor in Detroit, as the Caterpillar-sponsored team brought on Foley Cat, the second largest Caterpillar dealer in the world with 80 some dealerships, according to a team representative.Team Faith's Kevin Johnson made his return in Detroit after suffering a Chad Reed-esque third-degree shoulder separation in Atlanta. "I got in a first-turn pileup in the main event in Atlanta," Little KJ said. "A couple guys hit in the air in front of me, and I landed into his bike and flipped over and stuff. I had a third-degree separation of my AC joint, which is pretty much as bad as you can do it. I got up and I didn't feel too bad, and thought, 'Aww, man, I'm dead last. This sucks.' I looked over, and I'm like, 'Red flag! I can try again.' Then I reached up to get my bike and said, 'Nope!' I've done the other shoulder before, so I know what it feels like, and I reached up and I was like, 'Yeah. I'm done.' I took a full week off and then started rehab with my physical therapist, who I'm on a first-name basis with now, so we're good friends, and I just got it taped up, took some Advil, and I'm ready to go. Today is exactly 4 weeks, and the doctor said 4-6 weeks, so there you go. Doctor's orders. I had to ride Tuesday so the team knew if we were coming or not, and it hurt, but not bad enough. Adrenaline, drugs, I'll be okay."His mechanic wanted to make sure that we didn't get him confused with his older brother Keith. "It seems like a lot of people don't know the difference," Kevin said. "There was a write-up about the Guthrie Arenacross, and Keith Johnson was there and had the fastest laptime of the weekend on his Honda 450, and I'm pretty sure he was in Anaheim or somewhere. I was on a Yamaha two-stroke."Older brother Keith R. Johnson (not Keith S. Johnson, who is from New England) has adapted well to his YZ450F after parting ways with the Subway Honda team. He's going to need help if he's going to race the Nationals this year. "I would consider it if I got my bikes to the track and stuff, but last year on the 250, it just kind of bummed me out on the Nationals, being out there at a disadvantage," Keith said. "But now Yamaha makes a really good bike, so I would definitely consider it if the deal was right. But the Nationals aren't really a big deal to many people anymore anyway, so I don't know if anybody would be willing to do something or not."Mike Sleeter brought some more orange to the track, as he made his 450 debut in Detroit. "The story is that the Red Bull KTM team has a few injuries on their list of riders, so me and the KTM R&D; team decided to come up and throw some orange in the 450 class," Sleeter said. "It's working pretty good. I got probably 6 days on the bike before we came here, and I was fourth fastest in my practice and 24th overall, and I feel I can take about 3 seconds off my time to put me 16th or 17th fastest. The bike's real easy to ride, so I just need to do a couple sessions a little quicker with more intensity, and it should be good."Sleeter will be back on his 250F in Dallas. "I can't wait to get back to my 250F in Dallas. I've got an even better setup for Dallas and Seattle and Vegas," Sleetdawg said. "I'm actually going to start working on some outdoor stuff for Hangtown. I'll do Hangtown and Mammoth, and see where it takes me from there. I'll be on a 250F at Hangtown, and at Mammoth I'll ride all three—the Open, the 450 and the 250F. Hopefully, I'll be on some new bikes for Mammoth. Some '07s for Mammoth. That's the plan. But we don't know yet. Maybe, maybe not. It's fun to have the opportunity to come out here. KTM R&D;, I work for them, and they let me race. They don't pay me to do this, but they support me. It's great."Josh Lichtle reportedly injured his ankle in Detroit, and it may be broken. His return is unknown.James Stewart scored his fifth win of the AMA Series, and 7th win of the World Supercross GP Series in Detroit. "Yeah, I had those guys in check. I could kind of see them battling and stuff—not in check, but I was watching them," Stewart said. "I saw Ricky coming, and I saw Chad, and they were battling because they're close in the AMA points, and I just wanted to ride. I put 20 consistent laps in, and the track changed a lot. I just had to try and stay up. Basically, I was racing the lappers a few times. Those guys were racing me in a couple sections, but it was good. I kind of liked it. Ricky was doing it at the beginning of the season, with so much going on behind him, so it feels good to be where you were (to Ricky)."James says he changed the bike to fix his penchant for first-turn crashes. "Yeah, we definitely changed a few things," Stewart said. "I for sure know I've got the fastest bike out there, so that helps me out with the starts even when I don't get a good jump. I'm comfortable knowing it's going to pull. So I just don't think that's the only difference. I'm getting out front and not having to worry about all of that stuff in the back that Ricky had to go through tonight, so that helps out a lot."James isn't thinking about the title, just about winning races. "I just want to win races. I figure if I win races I'll come close to winning this title," Stewart said. "I'm just trying to go out there and do my own deal—go out in practice, put in some good times, have a good heat race, and then come out and try to ride a good 20 laps in the main event. If I win races, it'll happen."Carmichael won the battle for second, minimizing his loss to Stewart and gaining two points on Reed in the AMA title chase. "It was a race for the fans, as far as second place goes," Carmichael said. "I just had to fight up there. Those two guys got out there, and I found myself in the back. I was just disappointed in my starts, so I'll try to work on that and get it better. I really felt that it put me in a bunch of positions that I didn't really want to be in. It's my fault, and I don't have anyone to blame but myself. As far as that, I'm more frustrated with that than with any battling I did or going back and forth."RC was pretty angry right off the bat. "I lost my cool right when the gate dropped and I was going down the start straight," Carmichael said. "I was pretty pissed at myself. But it's my fault, and I have no one to blame but myself. I was just bummed because I really felt that I was way better than last week, and I was looking forward to trying to have a good race with James. I really felt that it was going to be fun, and that's what the fans needed, but unfortunately I didn't pull through, and everybody else did, so I was back there battling and dodging lappers and this and that. It was no fun."RC went off the track at one point, but saved it. "Actually, the triple, the berm got a little blown out and I hit a haybale and went off," Ricky said. "I just went around the outside slow and then hopped back on. Sometimes, it's tough to get back on because of the Tuff Blox, so luckily I had a good save there, and I just tried to put in some laps."Carmichael says he's not worried about what his competition does. "I'm worried about myself, not anybody else," RC said. "I have my goals and the things I want to do at night, and I'm not worried about anyone. I need to take care of myself before I worry about someone else. I'm really happy with the way that I rode tonight. I felt better, and I don't feel that I left anything out there."And he's not in "conservative mode. "It's not conservative mode. I want to go out and race for the lead, that's all I want to do," RC said. "If you win races, the championships come, and we're in good position for the AMA title, but not in such a good position for the World title. It's good for the fans."Reed knew that, with his shoulder separation, he didn't want to be in the position of trying to come through the field off the start. "For me, I just knew I needed to get a really good start and just concentrate on that," Reedy said. "I just tried to ride my own race and put some good laps together. I felt every lap that I learned something new and started doing a few other sections that I hadn't done all day and I just kind of rode into a rhythm and put some solid laps together."It's hard for Reed to come into the race fully prepared when he doesn't ride all week. "I felt that every lap, I rode a little better, and like I said, once I started getting the rhythm sections down, it was actually a little easier on my shoulder because I wasn't on the ground as much, I was in the air," Reed said. "I just started concentrating on hitting the turns, and the whoops, I tried to figure out how to be faster there. I can't be aggressive through the whoops, and that's where I was making up a little time. And on the jumps, I can't soak 'em up or anything like that, I just 'dead sailor'."He also says it's hard for him to get his shoulder better when he is racing every weekend. "We've been working our butts off," Chad said. "Every day, I do my thing that I need to do to try and get my shoulder strong, and I've just accepted that it's an injury that's going to be here for a little while, and I've just got to do my part to make it strong and give it everything I've got. Never give up, and fight to the end. At this point, all week long, all I can do is bicycle and get in the water and paddle around like a grandma, but that's about it. That makes it a little tough on the weekends to come out here. I feel like I'm a little rusty to start with, and then it just gets better and better, so this two-week break is going to help me out a lot. Come Friday, I feel like I'm getting better and I have some good movement, and then come the race on Saturday, I put myself back to where I was. I'll take it day by day to make it better."Chad had a scary moment in his heat when he went down in the whoops. "In the heat, I was chasing lines through the whoops, and they were really kind of cupped out and the bike wanted to go sideways, and I just didn't have the strength to keep it going straight ahead," Reed said. "The bike went sideways, and I didn't have enough strength to pull it back and I just went off and hit the Tuff Blox. That was it. I was glad I didn't land on it . When I fall, I'm trying to land on my feet, but that was it."Josh Grant is killing it in the Lites class right now. If not for his DNF in St. Louis, he might be in the championship hunt going into the series finale next weekend in Houston. "It sucks to think back to St. Louis," Grant said. "I'm really bummed that it happened, and I think this championship would've been different."But as it sits, Millsaps is ahead by 22 points, so Grant has little chance of coming away with the title. "I'm just going to go do the best that I can in Houston and Vegas," Grant said. "It's kind of out of the question right now—it's 22 points. It's a lot. I'm not really worried about it. I'd be stoked for a top-three."After three wins in the series, and two straight, Grant expects to win now. "It took those couple wins to do that for me," Josh said. "I'm not really worried about the guys that I was racing back in ninth. I just worry about us three up here. I'm just going to go race by race. If I got a good start, I know I can do well, so I just need to work on the whoops and try to do that every weekend." He's hoping the confidence will carry over to the outdoors. "Ryno and I have a really good program," he said. "I feel really strong for outdoors. I rode once this week at Glen Helen—I rode the 450—but it's coming along. I can't wait for the outdoors."Grant, like Carmichael, was only worried about his own performance in Detroit. "I knew he was there, but I was worried about myself tonight," Grant said. "I worked on the whoops, and it was my strong point tonight. I was confident, and my corners were really good, so I just put my head down and rode the 15 laps."Millsaps admittedly is thinking about the points battle a bit too much right now. "I relaxed and stuff, and then when somebody comes up to ask like, 'Dude, what about the championship? If you win this race, you've got it! What happens if you crash?'" Davi said. "I'm like, 'Dude, shut up. Just let me go race.' I don't know, I try not to think about it. Tonight, I was riding, and I saw Josh in front of me, and I saw the lappers, and I was just like, 'Man!' was just going through my head, I was just like, 'Shut up and stop thinking about it! Just go!' I couldn't get it out of my head tonight, and I don't like it. I just want to get it over with. I wish I could get it out of my head, but obviously not."That doesn't mean he's making excuses, though. "I closed in a little bit to begin with, and then he pulled back away, then I closed, and he pulled back away, and then I don't know, right around the 12th lap, I just slowed down a little bit," Davi said. "He was going real fast. He was riding good. My hat's off to him. I didn't have anything for him this weekend."The sound regulations have reached the MTF. "I have a stock 450 at my house with some suspension on it, and I'm just riding it," he said of his midweek practicing. "We've only got one track right now because of a noise ordinance going on. We get a $1000 citation every time we go over 75 decibels, which is stupid, so we can only ride one track and it has some huge jumps on it, so I like riding back there."Chris Gosselaar came from way back for third—which, of course, means he gets paid this week. "I want to make a deal with you guys," he said about being asked about his pay every week. "Every time you ask me that, please just pay me at least a dollar. Then I won't need a salary or bonus money and I could probably live off of it for the rest of my life."He passed Bobby Kiniry for third on the last lap when Kiniry went down. "Yeah, I got a horrible start," Gosselaar said. "I was like 10th or something on the first lap, and I just had to put my head down. I had a few close calls, and it took me a while to get around Josh Woods—I was stressing about that. I got into fourth, and he was quite a ways ahead of me, and I just put my head down and tried as hard as I could, and I pulled up to him on the last lap and put the pressure on. I was going to go for a stuff there in the last corner, but he beat me to it. He kind of fell on his own. It's unfortunate for him. I've been in that position before, so I'll take it any way I can get it at this point. I seen him. About four laps to go or so, I started to close in on him and that was my goal, and my mechanic was waving a rag out there telling me to go, so I knew I had to finish on the box, and that was my goal, so I just put my head down and went for it."He hopes to stick around for outdoors, but he doesn't know if he will. "You can ask Mike Fisher back there because I think it's up to Kawasaki at this point," Goose said. "I'm just worried about supercross right now and do what they hired me for, and that's to be up here every week. I'm just grateful to have this opportunity to ride supercross for them."He hopes to win one before the season's out—that means either next week in Houston, or Vegas at the Shootout. "That's the goal. I mean, that's what I want to do," Gosselaar said. "I think I rode tonight the best that I have all year. I think my laptimes were a lot closer. I still struggled on some sections of the track—like the triple before the finish line. I wouldn't do that. I was just a big chicken right there. But I felt like I rode good tonight. We have one race left, and we'll see. I'd really like to win one."