Yamaha’s David Vuillemin was patient. Waiting until the final lap, when he could exploit the mistake by Honda’s Ricky Carmichael, the Frenchman used a bold last-lap move to pass Carmichael in a carousel right and win the Indianapolis Supercross before a crowd of 57,883 in the RCA Dome.
“I saw the white flag and said, ‘Hey, you have to go for it,’” Vuillemin said after extending his championship lead to 18 points over Mike LaRocco with his third win of the year. But Vuillemin knew that he’d earned the win. “He could have won tonight.”
Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki’s Stephane Roncada was a distant third with Honda’s Nathan Ramsey fourth in front of the Amsoil/Dr. Marten’s Honda of hometown hero LaRocco.
In the opening round of the 125cc Eastern Regional series, Boost Mobile/Yamaha of Troy Racing’s Chad Reed became the first Australian to win an American supercross. In his first professional 125cc race, Reed took the lead from Pro Circuit/Chevy Trucks Kawasaki’s Mike Brown on the 13th of 15 laps, then sped away to win by 4.768 seconds.
“My whole life, I’ve been wanting to come to America and do this,” Reed said. The win puts him in the lead of the 125cc Eastern Regional championship with 25 points, three more than Brown.
Five-time arenacross champion Buddy Antunez returned to 125cc Supercross after a decade’s absence and put his Team Blimpie Suzuki into third. “It’s a big monkey off our back,” Antunez, 28, said.
Two more veterans filled the next two spots, Moto XXX’s Larry Ward, on a Yamaha, and returning to supercross after a one-year absence to take fourth in front of TeamCernics.com/KTM/PC Worldwide’s John Dowd.
Team SoBe Suzuki’s Travis Pastrana got the holeshot in the 250cc main and led first Vuillemin, then Carmichael, who muscled into second on the second lap and took over the lead on the fifth lap. There was a six-rider break at the front, Pastrana back in front on the sixth lap in front of Carmichael, Vuillemin, Roncada, Ramsey, and Bud Light Yamaha’s Jeremy McGrath.
Pastrana led at the halfway point, then it all went wrong. “I came into the corner a little bit wide and tried to jump back into the rut to stop Ricky [Carmichael], and he had no intention of stopping,” Pastrana said. “I had trouble with that section, and when I tried jumping in the rut, Ricky didn’t do me any favors. He could’ve avoided taking me out, but that’s racing. No hard feelings.”
“From my standpoint, he blew that section,” Carmichael said. “He tried to make something happen that was kind of impossible. I almost crashed as well.”
Later that same lap, McGrath lost the front end and crashed, re-mounting to finish seventh.
Carmichael led now with little comfort, Vuillemin inching closer with every lap before going for the lead on the final lap. Carmichael saw it coming and was helpless.
“I had a little bit of arm pump and I couldn’t take it to the edge, and I needed that edge tonight,” Carmichael said. “I kind of over-jumped the finish line there. He put a great pass on me. I seen it coming the whole night. I made a stupid mistake, and he capitalized on it.”
Roncada said he lost touch with the leaders because of the whoop section. “I lost a second and a half in the whoops. That tensed me up,” Roncada said after taking third.
Still, he was able to pull away from Ramsey and LaRocco at the end.
“I was a little off the leaders to begin with and kind of struggled through the whoops. That’s what cost me a lot of time,” Ramsey said. LaRocco said, “Once I got going, me and [Nate] Ramsey picked up the pace and we were there with the pack, but I got started too late.”
McGrath was in position to take advantage of the falls of Fonseca and Pastrana, but fell himself. “A couple of guys gave me a gift right in front of me when they fell, and then next thing I know I went under the bridge and lost the front end. I just slid out,” he said.
After six of 16 races, Vuillemin leads LaRocco, 139 to 119, with Carmichael third at 109.
250cc MAIN: 1. David Vuillemin (Yam); 2. Ricky Carmichael (Hon); 3. Stephane Roncada (Kaw); 4. Nathan Ramsey (Hon); 5. Mike Larocco (Hon); 6. Ezra Lusk (Kaw); 7. Jeremy McGrath (Yam); 8. Travis Pastrana (Suz); 9. Heath Voss (Hon); 10. Damon Huffman (Suz); 11. Nicholas Wey (Yam); 12. Jean Sebastien Roy (Hon); 13. Keith Johnson (Yam); 14. Robbie Reynard (Hon); 15. Kyle Lewis (Hon); 16. Isaiah Johnson (Suz); 17. Brian Mason (Kaw); 18. Ernesto Fonseca (Hon); 19. Jeff Gibson (Yam); 20. Kevin Crine (Hon).
Time: 17 mins., 31.950 sec.
250cc SUPERCROSS C’SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 6 of 16 rounds): 1. David Vuillemin (137/3 wins); 2. Mike Larocco (119/1); 3. Ricky Carmichael (109/2); 4. Travis Pastrana (93); 5. (TIE) Ezra Lusk/Nathan Ramsey/Stephane Roncada (83); 8. Jeremy McGrath (75); 9. (TIE) Damon Huffman/Nicholas Wey (58).
125cc MAIN: 1. Chad Reed (Yam); 2. Mike Brown (Kaw); 3. Buddy Antunez (Suz); 4. Larry Ward (Yam); 5. John Dowd (KTM); 6. Billy Payne (Hon); 7. Steve Boniface (KTM); 8 . Paul Currie (Suz); 9. Greg Schnell (Yam); 10. Jeff Gibson (Yam); 11. Branden Jesseman (Suz); 12. Robbie Horton (Hon); 13. Ryan Clark (Yam); 14. Kelly Smith (Yam); 15. Joshua Woods (Suz); 16. Barry Carsten (Suz); 17. Johnny Marley (Hon); 18. Jacob Martin (Yam); 19. Mark Burkhart (Yam); 20. 22. Grant Langston (KTM).
Time: 13 mins., 45.430 sec.
125cc EASTERN REGIONAL C’SHIP SERIES POINT STANDINGS (After 1 of 7 round:1. Chad Reed (25/1 win); 2. Mike Brown (22); 3. Buddy Antunez (20); 4. Larry Ward (18); 5. John Dowd (16); 6. Billy Payne (15); 7. Steve Boniface (14); 8. Paul Currie (13); 9. Greg Schnell (12); 10. Jeff Gibson (11).
