This was supposed to be the year when James Stewart (Kawasaki) gave Ricky Carmichael everything he could handle in the AMA 250 Outdoor motocross championship series. It hasn’t turned out that way. Either due to fitness or health issues (no one has made clear which it is), Stewart has been getting “dizzy” and “lightheaded” during races. Despite a strong performance at Round Two of the series, Stewart already has several DNFs, and sits 88 points behind Carmichael (more than 3 motos worth of points) after just three rounds.
Carmichael lost a moto last weekend (the first one he has lost in quite some time — to Chad Reed of the Yamaha team), but his lead over second place Reed is 29 points, and likely to continue growing. Although Reed must be commended for his performance in the first moto at Southwick last weekend (ending Carmichael’s moto win streak), barring injury or series mechanical issues with his race bike during the remainder of the series, Carmichael appears ready to dominate and clinch the championship early — as he has done several times before.
This would be Carmichael’s 13th AMA National championship, far more than Jeremy McGrath’s eight National crowns (McGrath sits second on the all-time list of AMA supercross/motocross championships won).
Suzuki’s decision to sign Carmichael last year when three of the sport’s superstars were available and unsigned (including Carmichael, Reed and Stewart) is looking awfully shrewd at this point. Carmichael has already delivered the 2004 AMA Supercross title to Suzuki (Suzuki’s first in nearly a quarter of a century)
