--Next up, Thunder Valley MX Park in Lakewood, CO, July 23, 2006--

Round 6 – AMA Toyota Motocross Championship Series
New Berlin, NY
Unadilla Valley Sports Center
July 16, 2006

Team Makita Suzuki Racing’s Ricky Carmichael continued his winning ways at New York’s Unadilla Valley Sports Center on Sunday afternoon, winning his fifth consecutive overall AMA Toyota Motocross race of 2006.  Extending his points lead in the title chase, the 2006 Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Champion and defending AMA Motocross Champion won both of his 30-minute Motocross-class motos to take the overall, marking Carmichael’s 140th combined AMA Supercross/Motocross career victory.

Ricky Carmichael:

“This has been an awesome day.  In the first moto, I got a good start on my Makita Suzuki RM-Z450 and I thought the track overall was really good.  It’s just unfortunate that James (Stewart) wasn’t out there.  He went down hard in practice but I’m hoping he’ll have a speedy recovery.  In the second moto, Davi (Millsaps) was running great but we prevailed and were able to get a good lead.  I actually fell in the second moto and I’m not sure anyone saw me.  But I was able to get up and get a good pace going and it didn’t really affect the outcome.  Overall, the Makita Suzuki has been great all year, actually for the last two years.”

In the Motocross Lites class, Team Makita Suzuki Racing’s Broc Hepler had an impressive showing on his Makita Suzuki RM-Z250.  In the first 30-minute Lites moto, Hepler got a rough start but rode hard and charged through the field, going from 20th to seventh position.  In the second moto, Hepler again had a bad start and also suffered from a get-off early in the moto.  Fortunately, he recovered and went on to capture a top-10 overall finish that moved him from 16th- to 13th-place overall in the points standings.

Broc Hepler:

“I was pretty happy with how the races went even though I got bad starts in both motos.  In the first moto, I worked really hard to move through the pack as quick as I could.  In the second moto, I had a pretty big crash and that set me back.  But I’m happy to be back racing again and I’m working on my conditioning and focusing on Thunder Valley.”

Ricky Carmichael, Team Makita Suzuki Racing RM-Z450, #4
1st Place – Moto 1, 1st Place – Moto 2
1st Place – Unadilla Overall
1st Place -- Overall

Broc Hepler, Team Makita Suzuki Racing RM-Z250, #60
7th Place – Moto 1, 13th Place – Moto 2
10th Place – Unadilla Overall
13th Place – Overall

Motocross Top 10 Finishers Overall:

1. Ricky Carmichael, Team Makita Suzuki Racing
2. Kevin Windham, Honda
3. Davi Millsaps, Honda
4. Chad Reed, Yamaha
5. Tim Ferry, Yamaha
6. David Vuillemin, Yamaha
7. Nick Wey, Honda
8. Travis Preston, Honda
9. Kyle Lewis, Honda
10. John Dowd, Suzuki
 

Motocross Lites Top 10 Finishers Overall:

1. Ryan Villopoto, Kawasaki
2. Andrew Short, Honda
3. Mike Alessi, KTM
4. Andrew McFarlane, Yamaha
5. Brett Metcalfe, Yamaha
6. Nathan Ramsey, KTM
7. Josh Grant, Honda
8. Martin Davalos, Yamaha
9. Ryan Sipes, Suzuki
10. Broc Hepler, Team Makita Suzuki Racing