After Langston won a dust-up at Round 11 in Binghamton, New York, the KTM rider held a nine-point lead heading into the final round, at Steel City in Pennsylvania. If Langston could hold on, it would mark KTM’s first-ever U.S. motocross championship, so the brass came out in force to support their hero. It helped that KTM was still based in Ohio in those days, making Steel City a short drive for everyone in the company.

Over in Brown’s Pro Circuit pit, Kawasaki had a special guest of its own: Ricky Carmichael, having already clinched the 2000 250 National Motocross Championship, he was jumping back on to a 125 for the day. RC ended his 125 motocross career tied with Mark Barnett on top of the all-time win list. He wanted one more win to get the record. Oh, and Carmichael and Brown were both on Kawasakis, and had been training together all summer.

This led to accusations of coming team tactics, prompting Carmichael’s famous line to Langston, “I won’t even hit you as I’m going by.”

Anyway, Carmichael got a terrible start in the first moto and although he logged the fastest lap times in the races, he could only work his way back to third. This left Brown and Langston to settle it, and the rivals battled all the way to the final corner. Brown won, punctuating it by flipping Langston off as they went across the finish line!

“Some of the emotions got the better of me there,” said Brown to me when I asked him about this a few weeks ago.

Langston was still six points up heading into the final moto and only needed to finish third to wrap the title. Then Brown crashed about halfway through the first lap and got up around mid-pack, while Langston was around the top five. The KTM victory party was about to begin.

Brown never gave up. He kept digging and fighting, and for whatever reason, some of his competitors actually waved him by. Up front, Carmichael ran away with the moto lead and Langston tried to ride a safe race. He even had help with a KTM teammate, our own David Pingree, just ahead of him in third early. Pingree let Langston by, and soon Langston was in a podium spot and set for a title.

Brown was flying, though. He briefly fell again, got back up and went around Nathan Ramsey so fast that legendary TV announcer Art Eckman said, “I didn’t even have time to say bar to bar there.”

Eventually Langston worked his way up to second, but incredibly Brown was up to third and closing! The fans were bracing for some contact between them, especially after watching Brown’s flip off from moto one. However, another issue soon took the focus: Langston’s wheel was starting to fall apart.

Yes, by the time Brown caught Langston, the rear wheel on Langston’s 125SX was wobbling and shaking as he went around the track. Brown went past, Langston started rolling jumps, and soon it was clear: Langston wasn’t going to be able to finish the moto. With a few laps left, Langston’s wheel finally gave up, he pulled off the track, and broke down in tears.

The drama wasn’t quite over. Brown was set to win the overall with a 1-2, so he actually slowed way, way down to let the third place rider, Branden Jesseman, catch him. Brown waved Jesseman by, and thus dropped to a 1-3, letting Carmichael’s 3-1 take the overall and the new all-time 125 record. Nice payback for letting Brown ride and train at his house all summer, under a new trainer to the sport named Aldon Baker.

In the first moto, Brown crossed the line flipping off Langston. In moto two, he crossed the line pumping his fist, and then he broke into tears. For Langston, tears of sadness. For Mike Brown, pure joy.