Bench Racing Ammo: Streakers

KTM's Juha Salminen is four-for-four in the Suzuki GNCC Series photo: Jason Hooper

As the 2006 racing season rolls on through the month of April—the fourth month of action—we can all agree that this season has been one of the best we’ve seen in a long time. And that goes for all types of motorcycle racing, including supercross, motocross, and off-road here in the United States. One sign of good racing is that we haven’t had many winning streaks this year in any series across the board. 

Well, except the Suzuki Grand National Cross Country Series, where Finland’s Juha Salminen, the defending series champion on a KTM 250XC, is on a roll, having won the first four rounds of the series. And from what we read, he’s not just winning – he’s dominating.

In the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series, the longest winning streak in the 450 class so far this year is three. Makita Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael won three in a row staring with Atlanta and ending in Daytona. The following race was where James Stewart started his current three-race winning streak on his factory Kawasaki, winning Orlando, Detroit, and Houston. Will James be able to go four in a row in Dallas? Why not? He won there last year on a KX250, and he’s led the last 60 laps in a row!

Ricky and James each have a three-race win streak in Amp'd Mobile Supercross photo: Simon Cudby

In the 250F class, the East Region was dominated by the Hondas of Davi Millsaps and Josh Grant. Both riders had two-race winning streaks, but Millsaps had two additional wins and was more consistent to take the championship – his first as a professional.

On the West Coast, Honda’s Andrew Short, Monster/Pro Circuit’s Grant Langston, and Red Bull KTM’s Nathan Ramsey each have two wins, but no one has been able to put together a streak so far—not even two races! The series starts up again on April 22 in Dallas, and with two races left and the top two separated by only two points, it should make for a grand finale. And then both coasts meet for Speed TV’s live coverage of the 2006 Dave Coombs Sr. East-West Shootout in Las Vegas!

In WORCS (World Off-Road Championship Series), Team Suzuki’s Ryan Hughes started the series with a two-race win streak, but in the following two races, we’ve seen two different winners: Red Bull KTM’s Mike Alessi and Hughes’ teammate, Mike Kiedrowski. But 3-2 finishes for Hughes in those rounds have the former motocrosser 32 points ahead in the rankings.

Ryan Hughes started the WORCS season with a two-race win streak photo: Kinney Jones

Over in Europe, GP motocross just started up, and at the first round we saw four different moto winners: Stefan Everts and Sebastien Tortelli traded MX1 wins (with Everts taking the overall) and in MX2 it was Tyla Rattray and David Phillapaerts swapping moto wins, Rattray taking the overall.

So as previously mentioned, the longest streak we have now is in the Suzuki Grand National Cross Country Series, where Finland’s Salminen is 4-for-4 thus far on his orange crusher. The next round of the series picks up April 22-23 at the famed Loretta Lynn’s Ranch in Hurricane Mills, TN, where Juha will be looking for win number five—the same weekend Stewart goes for four in a row in SX.