They say history repeats itself and 20 years later we find ourselves in a very similar predicament with the Supercross title coming down to the final round. Back in 2006, fans witnessed one of the closest battles in Supercross history as three riders came into the season finale separated by just five points.
To set the stage, James Stewart took the win in Seattle one weekend prior with Chad Reed finishing second and Ricky Carmichael rounding out the podium in third. Carmichael’s fears had become all too real as his once-comfortable points lead had now dwindled away to nothing. Now Carmichael and Reed faced off in a stalemate at 316 points a piece with Stewart still lurking in second, just five points back. It marked the first time since 1992 where the title would be decided at the final race of the year.
“We had the press conference at Anaheim 1, and we said we wanted to take it to Vegas,” Stewart said after clinching his seventh win of the season in Seattle. “But I don’t think any of us thought it was going to be this close.”
“For me, I’m pumped to be in this position,” Reed said. “There were two really important races this year [St. Louis and Dallas], and I happened to win those, so basically 15 races mean nothing. Vegas is the one that counts.”
“It’s come down to what everybody wants,” Carmichael said. “This is what you guys have been begging for, and you got it, so for you guys its going to be exciting, for us its going to be exciting, and I’m just glad to be a part of it.”
Stewart still led the World Supercross GP points, the fight which included the two pre-season rounds held in Canada, and was practically a shoe-in for that title. The AMA series though, was anyone guess. Should Stewart win in Vegas, the championship would still be decided between Reed and Carmichael, going to whoever finished better than the other. Second place would then end up tied in overall points and if JS7 were to win, he’d break that tie with more main event wins on the season to his credit.
And that’s exactly what happened. A sell out crowd of 39,506 fans packed the house at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada while viewers at home enjoyed the first-ever live TV broadcast for what was hyped as the closest finale in Supercross history. The perfect storm if you will.
It was a must-win for each of the three contenders but it was Stewart who grabbed the $1000 Progressive Direct holeshot award and led every lap of the 20-lap main event. Carmichael quickly slotted into second after getting around Kevin Windham and his Makita Suzuki teammate, Ivan Tedesco. Only about three seconds separated the lead duo with Carmichael knowing he need not press the issue in to safely secure his fifth Supercross championship. Reed took a bit longer to clear Windham and Tedesco but finally passed into third by lap four.
The stopwatches told the story of the race as Reed gained a tenth here and a tenth there only for Carmichael to do the same. For the Carmichael fans, the race was excruciatingly long as they held their breath for the remaining laps. For the Reed fans, it was painfully short. By about the 15th lap it was evident how the race would end – just as it started with Stewart in front, Carmichael in second, and Reed in third. All three riders would remain equally distant from one another as Stewart clinched his eighth win of the season 4.32 seconds clear of RC.
“I’m just happy to be in this position,” Stewart said after finishing his second season in the 450 class. “To be only two points out – we can go back and look at a lot of races, but I can’t. I’m really happy. The goal was to finish this year and try my best and I succeeded in that and I won me a title. You can’t look back at the past. All the races that went down in the first corner, the hay bales, and all that and to just finish two points shy, you have to look at that as being great.”
A second place result proved good enough for Carmichael to take his fifth, final, and hardest-fought Supercross championship. It also marked the first season where a four stroke machine won the title.
“Once I seen Chad get into third, I was like ‘Well I’m going to lay down the laps now and if he beats me he beats me,'” Carmichael said. “I told myself ‘Last week was the first race where he [Reed] beat me heads up without me crashing,’ and I wasn’t about to let that happen. He’s a great competitor – he always has been – but he wasn’t going to get the best of me tonight. He hadn’t done it all year, and it wasn’t starting this weekend.”
“I’m just super pumped going out a champion,” Carmichael added. “It would’ve been cool to get the World title but kudos to James, he stepped it up. The boys in the years to come are going to have their hands full with him. I won’t miss that, that’s for sure because he is going to take it to a new level and is just riding amazing on the bike. I’m looking forward to doing battle with him in outdoors though.”
For Reed, the outcome was a bitter pill to swallow. His third place finish put him tied with Stewart in overall points with Stewart taking the tiebreaker due to more wins on the season. Reed entered the night tied for the championship lead but left Las Vegas third in points.
“All I asked this weekend was to go out there and ride the way I knew how to ride and not leave anything on the table,” Reed said. “I got a decent start and I was kind of on the outside going down the [rhythm] lane, and I tried to go down the next one so I could do the triple but he [Tedesco] was just kind of jacking with me, just pushed me all the way to the outside and I just ran out of race track and couldn’t do the triple. So it was kind of a bummer to let those guys [Stewart and Carmichael] get going at the beginning of the race there.”
“The only real problem I had was with Ivan a little bit,” Reed continued. “My teammate would’ve done the same, so no complaints there.”
When the dust settled, only two points spread across all three riders in what’s still revered as one of the sport’s closest finales. 2006 marked Carmichael’s final full-time season as he re-signed with Suzuki for 2007 on a part-time Supercross schedule. Stewart won every one of his heat races during the 2006 schedule and took second in his second season in the 450 class. He went on to win the title one year later with 13 wins during the 2007 season. Reed’s turn for the title came again in 2008.
Fast forward 20 years and the series is looking at the closest finish we’ve seen in the last two decades. Ken Roczen leads the 450SX standings by just one point over Hunter Lawrence as the series heads to this year’s finale in Salt Lake City, Utah. Both riders have five wins on the season, 12 podiums, and 14 top five finishes. Neither one has a 450SX championship to their name nor have they ever led the series this late in the year. Its now or never.
Both riders have incredible stories to tell which makes it truly a case of “may the best man win.” Stay tuned because its a great time to be a Supercross fan. And who knows, we may not have a title fight this close for another another 20 years.
