Racer X Holeshot Award
Located just outside of the small town of Millville in southeastern Minnesota, Spring Creek Motocross Park is known as Minnesota’s National Treasure. The track is a favorite among the riders, and its sandy soil seems to favor Floridians, as Ricky Carmichael has only lost one overall here, which came in ’99 in the 125cc class. (Quick trivia: Who won that day? Answer below.)
The Millville start is long and flat and leads into a sweeping right-hand turn and over a small step-up. There really isn’t a bad starting position on the gate, as I witnessed Yamaha of Troy’s Matt Walker pull a holeshot in his Sunday morning qualifier from the far outside gate! But as for the motos, most of the holeshots came from the right of the three-story starter’s box.
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In the 250F class, SoBe/Samsung Mobile Honda’s Josh Grant pocketed an extra $1,000 in Racer X Holeshot money on the day for his quick reflexes as he pulled the holeshot in both motos. In the first moto he edged out fellow Honda-mounted riders Andrew Short and Steve Boniface. After his early run up front, Grant faded to fifth place.
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In moto two, Josh just barely beat Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto to the Racer X Holeshot line for his second $500 bonus, but once the skies opened up, Grant struggled a bit in the mud and fell to 10th. He finished the day in sixth overall.
Ironically, Mike Alessi did not get either holeshot—a rare feat for him—but his solid 4-2 efforts put him back in the driver’s seat for this 250F Toyota AMA Motocross Championship. These last six motos at Broome-Tioga, Steel City, and Glen Helen should be absolutely amazing!
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The first 450 moto would be the only dry start for the premier-class riders this day, and Team Solitaire’s Justin Buckelew shot his CRF450R to the front of the pack, edging out the factory Kawasaki of James Stewart and earning his first Racer X Holeshot Award of the 2006 season. Although Buckelew’s moto went downhill after that and he finished 35th, he would redeem himself in the second moto with a solid 10th-place finish—not bad for a guy from the not-often-muddy suburbs of Albuquerque, New Mexico!
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For the second moto of the 450 class, the track was literally a mud bog and every rider declined the opportunity to take a hot lap. Getting in front of the 39 other mud-slinging 450cc motorcycles was going to be very important, and taking the Racer X Holeshot Award in this moto would be Makita Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael, who narrowly beat out Rockstar Suzuki’s Mike Brown by less than a wheel length. Carmichael would go on to lay the smack down on the entire field, lapping every other rider on the track to basically finish first and second. It was quite a display of mud riding by the Floridian, who vowed to return to Millville next year.
