Kawasaki came to his rescue with the unveiling of their new KX450F prior to the 2006 Amp’d Mobile Supercross season, which would begin in Canada in December with the Toronto and Vancouver rounds of the FIM World Supercross GP (the bike actually debuted under Michael Byrne at the US Open, a race Stewart planned on racing on his KX250 until an illness popped up at the last moment and took him out of the race). In Canada, a seemingly brand new Stewart showed up there with his own brand new KX450F and a new #7. Having taken a page from Carmichael’s book the previous season, both Stewart and Chad Reed went up North for the December rounds, as did Ivan Tedesco and Michael Byrne, giving some heft to the international races.

At the opener Stewart immediately showed that he was good to go on a 450, beating Carmichael in their heat race and then overcoming a crash while leading early in the main to pass Carmichael for the win. Stewart was patient and smooth outside of the crash, and his win seemed to stun Carmichael—especially since Stewart seemed like he was truly a step ahead. Here’s the TV coverage, featuring Ralph Sheheen and former 125 SX Champion Denny Stephenson.

As Denny says, “No one has ever spotted Carmichael a crash and then chased him down and beat him!” Stewart did it in Toronto in spectacular fashion on his Jeremy Albrecht-turned Kawasaki.

How did Carmichael react? Just go the 41:00 mark to see his post-race interview with SPEED's Krista Voda: “I learned a lot tonight. I need to improve a little bit. James was definitely faster than me. I definitely think he was toying with me.” He and his Makita Suzuki team obviously had work to do.

Reed had work to do too: He wasn’t in the picture as Stewart took it to Carmichael. But after both he and RC got bad starts in Vancouver, Stewart cleared out again and made it look even easier. Carmichael looked a little sloppy on the weird  “moon dirt” out in British Columbia, but he played it smart—even though the top guys were there in Canada for the “GP” rounds, the real championship he and everyone else coveted was the 2006 Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Championship, and he had three weeks over Christmas to get going, as did Reed, because it was obvious to all that Stewart on the new 450 raised the stakes.

In one of those strange stats that are often overlooked, Ricky Carmichael never won the Anaheim Supercross opener. Sure, he won races at Angel Stadium, but he was a notorious late-starter, with trainer Aldon Baker getting him ready for the long haul rather than the first race. This year would be no different. This time Stewart started behind both Carmichael and Reed, only to come through again after RC threw it away in the whoops.

Wrote Kit Palmer in Cycle News, “Stewart showed something that he really hasn’t shown much of throughout his young, though lengthy racing career—patience.”

Added Carmichael, “James is the guy. Right now I guess I’m the hunter. He’s definitely setting the tone.”

Here’s the Anaheim 1 coverage. Carmicahel’s crash comes at the 29:10 mark.

The winner of the newly-rebranded “Lites” class at Anaheim was Team Honda’s Andrew Short, who came from behind to pass the early leader, SX debutante Ryan Villopoto, who actually had to ride the LCQ to qualify for his first AMA Supercross. Shorty passed Villopoto on the tenth lap of the main event.

Next was Phoenix, which was a symbolic race for Stewart—he had broken his arm here one year earlier and lost his shot to be a rookie champion in AMA Supercross like Jeremy McGrath was.

Speaking of McGrath, Jeremy was still doing the occasional race, a perk that came with being the most talented supercross rider of all time. He could quite literally sign up for any race and have top-five speed, even though he was six years past his last championship, and had retired for three years. At Phoenix, he did something that hasn’t happened since and may never happen again: McGrath holeshot the main event on his Honda CR250 and led the first lap against all of those four-strokes. And ever the showman, he even did a nac-nac off the first triple jump! It was an incredible moment that spoke volumes on just how good Jeremy was, and also how quickly the sport was evolving with four-strokes taking over.

The Phoenix race was the first “off” race of the year for Stewart, as he started off poorly, crashing in the first turn, which featured a split-gate. Carmichael was much better off in fifth, and that head start was all Ricky needed from James. However, he would need two small mistakes by the leader Reed to get this win—his first since March 5, 2005, in St. Louis. After Reed bobbled, Carmichael got to him and made a pass for the win. He left tie on top of the AMA points with Stewart, who finished third. Here are the Phoenix highlights. (The TV folks missed McGrath’s nac-nac because the bigger story was Stewart going down in the first turn.)

Watch the 3:50 for Carmichael’s aggressive pass on Reed, where he ran the Yamaha rider out of real estate.

In the Lites class, Villopoto again had to qualify through the LCQ, then crashed with Short in the main. The winner would be Red Bull KTM’s Nathan Ramsey.

Cycle News called Anaheim 2 a “battle royale” on their cover (shot by the late Steve “TFS” Bruhn) and they weren’t exaggerating. It was obvious to all that Carmichael was now going as fast as Stewart, and Reed was still catching up. At Anaheim RC took the fight straight to Stewart, and they diced back and forth until the crucial eighteenth lap, where Stewart lost the front end going into a corner, surrendering the lead to Carmichael and second to Reed. The race was a big boost for supercross, because it aired the next day on CBS, right in the middle of NFL playoff coverage, and featured a fantastic eighteen-lap battle between two superstars. It’s a main event show worth watching. Check it out right here.

The winner of the Lites class at A2 was Grant Langston, the previous season’s East Region Champion, on his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki.

The next race was at SBC Park in San Francisco, and this time the rain showed up and stayed. An epic battle got underway after a holeshot by MDK Honda rider Nick Wey, who hailed from Michigan and was right at home in the mud. Once Stewart and RC dispatched of Wey, they took off together and put on a collective mud-riding clinic. Said Ralph Sheheen, “I’ve never seen a race that was so slow that was so thrilling!” They put the entire field down a lap, as Wey—in earning his first premier-class podium—only completed eleven of the rain-shortened twelve-lap race. Watch this instant classic’s highlights right here.

Strangely, at this point in the season, Stewart was ahead of Carmichael in the FIM standings due to his two wins in Canada, but Carmichael was leading the AMA series. It was a confusing situation that would stick around until the end of the tour(s) in Las Vegas.

Carmichael took another win at the third and final Anaheim race while Stewart had a terrible night, crashing three times—one of them involving McGrath. That opened the door for Reed to claim second and Ivan Tedesco to score his first-ever AMA Supercross podium in the premier class. Stewart finished eighth, and it gave Carmichael breathing room for once. Here’s Anaheim 3.

At San Diego Stewart got back on top and stayed on two wheels for the whole race, which was something that was not happening every weekend. He tracked down Carmichael and earned another main event win, with Carmichael second and Reed third. The series would head east with Carmichael holding an 11-point lead in the AMA rankings and 2 points in the FIM deal. Stewart raced with “For Karla” on the back of his pants, dedicating the win to Kawasaki engine man Rick Asch’s daughter.  

Finishing fourth on a Honda CRF450 (he had parked his old two-stroke) was Jeremy McGrath—this was also where he would go back into retirement. You will hear him speak at the 37:40 mark; it’s pretty cool.

There was something else going on behind the scenes, as the AMA officials took fuel samples from the field. The results would not be announced until Atlanta.

By the time the series reached St. Louis, Chad Reed had become the odd-man-out in the battle for the title. That would change immediately. Reed rode into the Edward Jones Dome without a win or even being close to the leaders, but Carmichael, after a terrible heat race crash, dropped out of the main event with broken rear shock spring. Then Stewart clipped a Tuff Block and knocked himself down, twisting his clutch lever around and ruining his night. He finished seventeenth. Reed then overhauled Ivan Tedesco to take the lead and the win. It was a 24-point swing for Reed, who suddenly found himself the points leader!

“That was probably the most important win of my career,” said Reed afterwards. “I just had so much pressure on myself and I felt I was 300 pounds lighter after that win.”

Finishing second was Suzuki’s Tedesco, while Honda’s Ernesto Fonseca finished third. 

The Lites East Region started in St. Louis, and now-Honda-mounted Davi Millsaps would win, setting the stage for a solid and consistent season that would carry him to the title (and also put Cairo, Georgia on the motocross map). He would also win Indianapolis, Daytona, and Houston on his way to his first professional title.

Just before the Atlanta race at the Georgia Dome, the proverbial sh-- hit the fan: The AMA announced that Carmichael’s fuel in San Diego tested positive for trace amounts of lead, and that he in turn would be penalized 25 points, just as Reed and his Yamaha teammate Vuillemin (and privateer Tyson Hadsell) had been in 2004, and Stewart and his Kawasaki teammate Michael Byrne had been in 2005. Carmichael was furious, and before the race he and Makita Suzuki manager Roger DeCoster and Ricky’s personal manager Scott Taylor of Fox Racing conducted an open press conference in front of the team’s rig that became a PR masterpiece. Carmichael pleaded his case, and then ultimately threatened to quit if the AMA did not revisit this penalty. "At this point I might as well just say see you at Hangtown," said Carmichael. It was yet another dramatic surprise on the way to this series’ conclusion, and the AMA eventually buckled under the scrutiny, stating that while its fuel regulations were consistent with the FIM, the supercross co-sanctioning body, their testing methods were different, and thus the rules were hard to enforce. The AMA eventually gave Carmichael his points back. MXA posted a piece about the inconsistent rules enforcement right here.

Coincidentally, the FIM did not penalize Carmichael for the fuel at all, so until the AMA was overruled, he was 25 points down in one series and not the other. As for the race itself, which was won by Carmichael, you can watch it right here.

The series headed back north to Indianapolis, and Carmichael, Stewart, and Reed went 1-2-3. Further back, Fonseca’s sixth-place finish was the last of his career. In the week to follow, the friendly and popular Costa Rican hero crashed hard while practicing and fractured his neck, resulting in paralysis. His crash was the hardest news to hit supercross since the 2004 San Diego race, when a California privateer named Jason Ciarletta died after a first-turn crash in his heat race. While the series would go on, few in the industry will probably forget where they were when the heard the news that Ernesto was down.

The series swung again in Daytona, when Stewart suffered another one of those epic crashes that line his long career. He was winning when he had to step through the bars as he endoed in front of Carmichael and Reed. Here is Stewart’s crash.

It’s worth noting that James managed to get back up and finished sixth, salvaging what could have been a terrible night.

Stewart bounced right back to win Orlando over Carmichael, while Reed had the off night and only managed a fifth. The recipient of the last spot on the box was once again the privateer Nick Wey.

The next two rounds were in Detroit and Houston and the podiums would be identical: 1.) James Stewart; 2.) Ricky Carmichael; 3.) Chad Reed.

Dallas 2006 would be most remembered for the boat on the infield. It was there for every race since Mastercraft was a series sponsor, and it was never a problem until the fifth lap of this race—the moment that Carmichael lost control through the whoops, was thrown from his bike, which then hit the boat! And just when it seemed that Stewart would grab the advantage, he crashed too, and Chad Reed was once again in the right place at the right time. Here’s the main.

Stewart did the least damage, getting back in the race to finish second, but Carmichael needed a bunch of kicks to get his Suzuki running, and he would finish sixth

The Lites West Region would be decided in Seattle, with Andrew Short and Grant Langston nearly tied in points. On a muddy track, Short faltered in the slop, allowing Langston to adding yet another #1 plate to his collection. He already had an FIM World Championship, AMA Motocross Championship, and now each region in AMA Lites (125) Supercross. Langston won the Seattle race over Villopoto and the wild child from back east named Jason Lawrence.

Stewart got his seventh win of the series in Seattle, another mudder, while Reed finished second and Carmichael struggled to hold on to third. The points were getting very close as Stewart began a surge, and Carmichael nearly threw it all away in the mud when he slipped off the track and onto the wood and concrete off to the side. His barely saved it, and his points lead. Here’s the race.

This set the scene for a grand finale. For the first time since 1992, the AMA Supercross Championship would go down to the wire at the last round. Carmichael and Reed were deadlocked with 316 points apiece while Stewart was just 5 points back. (And Stewart was still well out front in the FIM standings since his Daytona crash did not count against him in that series-within-the-series.)

The 2006 Las Vegas SX was likely one of the most anticipated races in supercross history. Prior to the event, Carmichael announced the season would be his last as a full-time racer, saying he would switch to a part-time schedule in 2007 before retiring completely for 2008. This only added drama to a race that didn't need any. The math was such that Stewart could win the race and still lose the AMA title to either Ricky or Chad, depending on who finished second. Stewart did all he could do, which was holeshot and go, while Carmichael started much better than Reed and held second. Carmichael had help from his teammate and friend Ivan Tedesco, who had crashed and injured his shoulder in a heat race, but started ahead of Reed and did all he could to keep the Yamaha rider behind him. Soon Reed reached third, but the that was as far as he could go. Lap after lap they held their positions, and it soon became obvious that the cards were going to fall in RC’s favor. He stayed right on Stewart’s rear fender until past the checkered flag, and then both celebrated right on the track together: Carmichael as the 2006 AMA Supercross Champion, Stewart as the 2006 FIM World Supercross Champion. Reed rode well all season long, but he only won two races to Carmichael’s six (all AMA) and Stewart’s eight (six AMA, two FIM). And Stewart won the tie-breaker for second in the AMA series, which meant that in one night Reed went from being tied for the points lead to finishing third and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here’s the dramatic conclusion to a remarkable season.

2006 AMA Supercross Championship Standings

1.	Ricky Carmichael		338
2.	James Stewart		336
3.	Chad Reed		336
4.	Ivan Tedesco		255
5.	Nicholas Wey		249
6.	Michael Byrne		228
7.	Travis A Preston		207
8.	Ernesto Fonseca		125
9.	Ryan D Clark		118
10.	Mike LaRocco		108

Lites East Region Standings

1.	Davi Millsaps		166
2.	Christopher Gosselaar		134
3.	Josh Grant		119
4.	Tommy Hahn		102
5.	Branden Jesseman		96

Lites West Region Standings

1.	Grant Langston		161
2.	Andrew Short		153
3.	Ryan Villopoto		141
4.	Mike Alessi		129
5.	Billy R Laninovich		125