Carmichael Wins a Mudder in Millville

Shan Moore | August 13, 2006

Ricky Carmichael lapped the entire field en route to the second moto victory at a very muddy round nine of the AMA Motocross Championships held at Spring Creek MX Park, near Millville, Minnesota. A come-from-behind win in the much dryer opening moto gave the Makita Suzuki rider his seventh overall win of the season and his seventh-straight win at the Spring Creek MX facility.

Finishing second overall was Motoworld Racing.com’s David Vuillemin, with 7-2 moto scores, while Sobe/Samsung/Mobile/Honda’s Kevin Windham finished third overall with 9-3 moto finishes.

In the first moto, Kawasaki’s James Stewart took the early lead, but fell on lap three, handing the lead to Chad Reed. Two laps later, Carmichael (pictured above during the dry first moto) passed Reed in the whoops and pulled away for a 37-second margin of victory over Stewart, who had moved back into second when Reed lost the header pipe on his Yamaha.

The skies opened up just before moto two, turning the track to muck, but Carmichael seemed oblivious to the conditions and wheelied and railed his way to a dominating win, lapping all 39 riders in the process.

Stewart ran in second during the early going, but fell victim to a deep rut on lap five and by the time he got himself free was outside of the top 10. Stewart was able to salvage fourth overall with 2-11 moto finishes.

In the Lites division, Carmichael’s Makita Suzuki teammate Broc Hepler showed that he has mud riding skills as well by taking the second moto win and, combined with a third in the first moto, the overall victory.

From there, things get a little fuzzy as several protests delayed the posting of second moto scores. However, chances are that Team Honda’s Andrew Short was second overall after running away with the opening moto, while KTM’s Mike Alessi was an unofficial third overall after finishing fourth in the first moto.