450 Words: San Francisco
January 29, 2007 11:00am
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To say the 450 main on Saturday night was wild would be an understatement. After last week’s yawner at the Big A, where James Stewart decimated the field from practice to qualifying to the podium, there was some hope that Ricky Carmichael’s return would add a little pizzazz back to the tour. And when rain wiped out much of practice and made the track choppy and inconsistent—in other words, motocross—there was an air that maybe something special was about to happen.
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Stewart got the worst of it when he hit neutral and cartwheeled right in front of Reed, who then literally blasted himself off the track right in front of Carmichael (who himself took a rather frightening trip over the side of the Tuff Blox at the finish line that could have turned out like Stewart’s infamousToronto excursion).
How exciting was it? I was watching the race in a seat right in front of Jeremy McGrath and Ryan Hughes, both of whom were cheering and screaming just like any other kid at AT&T Field. Once a motocross fan, always a motocross fan!
And when Ricky crossed the finish line to take the win and end any more talk of a perfect season for #7, it was a special moment for everyone there. With RC about to take even more time off—he won’t race again until Atlanta in a month—this very well may have marked his last AMA Supercross win. After a long and well-deserved victory lap, he admitted, through that big smile we’re all going to miss, that the other two guys gave it to him, but he was taking it all the same.
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So Ricky Carmichael continues to do the impossible—who would ever bet against him? Well, other than the guys in the box where I watched. Thanks again for the cash, men!