Ricky Carmichael finished off the day with another moto win to give him the overall victory at the Binghamton National MX in New York today. After winning the first moto and clinching his seventh MX-class National Championship, Carmichael quickly got into the lead in the second moto, only to crash on the second lap when he washed out, giving the lead to Kawasaki’s James Stewart.
Carmichael found himself about three seconds behind Stewart and spent the next seven laps reeling in his series rival. Carmichael eventually got around Stewart and quickly put distance between himself and the Kawasaki rider. Carmichael took the win well ahead of Stewart, who went 2-2 for second overall.
Third overall went to SoBe/Samsung Mobile/Honda’s Kevin Windham. Windham got good starts in both motos, both times rounding the first laps in the top four.
Honda’s Davi Millsaps grabbed the holeshot in both MX-class motos, battled up front all day and was rewarded with fourth overall, via 4-4 moto scores.
Unbound Energy/Moto XXX/Honda’s Tim Ferry rounded out the top five overall with a 5-5 tally.
MDK/Motosport/Honda’s Nick Wey finished sixth on the day with a 9-6, followed by Honda’s Travis Preston (6-9), Motoworld/Yamaha’s David Vuillemin (8-8), Makita Suzuki’s Ivan Tedesco (7-10) and Rockstar/Suzuki/Bill’s Pipes’ Mike Brown (13-7).
In the Lites class, Makita Suzuki’s Broc Hepler followed up his first-moto win with a third in the second moto, but that was good enough to give him the overall victory for the second time in as many weeks.
Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto was the runner-up with 4-1 moto finishes, but more importantly, he is now 20 points ahead of Red Bull KTM’s Mike Alessi in the series points race. Villopoto trailed Alessi by five points going into today’s race, but a first-moto DNF by Alessi helped put Villopoto way out in front with four motos left.
After crashing out of the first moto, Alessi came back to finish fourth in the second moto.
In only his second pro race, Yamaha’s new recruit Josh Hill got on the podium after going 2-5 for third overall.
Honda’s Andrew Short finished fourth with a 7-2, followed by WBR Yoshimura/Suzuki’s Ryan Sipes, who went 6-7 on the day.
With still two rounds to go, Carmichael has an uncatchable 489 points lead, followed by Chad Reed and Kevin Windham, who both have 333 points each. Millsaps is fourth with 325.
In the Lites class, Villopoto leads with 391 points, followed by Alessi with 371, Short with 359 and Josh Grant, who went 23-12 on the day, with 297.
