Crossover in This Sport Continues With Carmichael

Ever since motocross moved into stadiums in 1972, the superstars of Supercross have mostly come from Southern California, riders such as Bob Hannah of Quartz Hill, Ricky Johnson of El Cajon, Jeff Ward of Mission Viejo and Jeremy McGrath of Murrieta.

As the sport has grown nationally, much as NASCAR’s Winston Cup expanded around the country from the Carolinas, riders from other areas are beginning to take their place at the top.

Jeff Emig of Kansas City, Mo., dethroned McGrath two years ago, and Doug Henry of Oxford, Conn., won the 1998 national 250cc championship.

Now comes Ricky Carmichael, a 19-year-old phenom from Havana, Fla., a few miles from Tallahassee.

Carmichael, who dominated the 125cc class last year like no one before him, will make his 250cc Supercross debut Saturday night on a Kawasaki when the American Motorcyclist Assn. opens its $1.7-million season at Edison Field in Anaheim.

AMA officials expect a turn-away crowd of close to 50,000 when Supercross returns to the refurbished stadium after a year’s absence. The 1996 race at Anaheim attracted a record crowd of 65,254, but the stadium has been downsized.

McGrath, winner of five of the last six Supercross championships, will be back as the favorite on his Team Chaparral Yamaha, but the 5-foot-6, 155-pound Carmichael will be closely watched.

Last season he became the first rider to win every race in the 125cc division, winning the East regional title and then the East/West shootout in Las Vegas. Since turning professional in 1996, Carmichael has an amazing 62% win ratio (28 of 45 races.)

“I’m really looking forward to the Anaheim race. I know it’s a big step, but if I can win a couple of races and be consistent all season, I’ll be satisfied,” Carmichael said after a workout on the Kawasaki training track in Corona.

The big differences between the 125 bike and the 250 are weight, power and competition. The 250 weighs nearly 25 pounds more and has almost double the horsepower.

“Winning a 250 is definitely tougher because there are 15 good guys in every final who could win, and only about five in 125. As for the bikes, in some ways the 250 is easier to handle, but it’s harder to turn in tight corners like we have in most Supercross courses,” he said.

Because he chooses to live in Florida, instead of California where his Kawasaki teammates, Emig and Damon Huffman, live and train, Carmichael built his own training track near his home.

“It’s a great track. We hauled in 5,000 yards of red Georgia clay and designed a track as close to Supercross as we could. It was easy to get the clay because we only live a few miles from the Georgia border.”

Carmichael also trains with Ezra Lusk, runner-up to McGrath in last year’s Supercross season. Lusk, a Honda team rider, lives in Bainbridge, Ga., about 30 miles from Carmichael.

“I know Jeff [Emig] moved out here from Kansas to train, but I feel like I can maintain a better routine if I go home after every race. My mother [Jeannie] keeps a close watch on me, both on and off the track. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have the success I’ve had.”

Jeannie is often out at the track with Ricky, clocking his lap times and critiquing his riding.

Carmichael has never ridden at Anaheim, but he rode in 1997 in the Coliseum and won the 125 national events the past two years at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino.

Although he turned 19 only last November, Carmichael is far from inexperienced as a racer.

He got his first minibike, a Yamaha 50, on Valentine’s Day, 1985. He was 5.

At 7 he traveled to Ponca City, Okla., where he won the first of nine championships as a member of Kawasaki’s amateur racing program. He turned professional for the final race of the 1996 season and impressed AMA officials enough that he was named rookie of the year after only one race.

Anaheim will be Carmichael’s second time on a 250 as a professional. He rode in the U.S. Open of Supercross last October in Las Vegas, a non-points race.

“I didn’t do very well, but I did beat McGrath in the first moto. The next night I crashed.”

Huffman, his Kawasaki teammate, won the $100,000 purse, richest in Supercross history. It was particularly gratifying to Huffman, who lives in Acton, because he had been sidelined for six months after being injured in a race at Pontiac, Mich.

Also in Saturday night’s race will be Robbie Reynard of Team Suzuki, who won the world Supercross championship during the off-season with a win in Italy on Nov. 28.

NASCAR

The Earnhardts, Dale and Dale Jr., are in town for the Busch Grand National awards banquet tonight at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, where Junior will pick up his champion’s trophy and enough money to make him the first Busch driver to earn more than $1 million in a season.

Junior will upstage his dad again Jan. 16 when he is one of 12 drivers honored as members of the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Assn. All American team at the Renaissance Hotel in Long Beach.

Also on the team are Winston Cup drivers Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin, CART champion Alex Zanardi, IRL champion Kenny Brack, drag racing’s John Force and Gary Scelzi, Craftsman Truck champion Ron Hornaday Jr., Indy Lights winner Cristiano da Matta and sports car drivers Butch Leitzinger, Paul Gentilozzi and David Besnard.

HYDROPLANES

How ironic it was that Jim Kropfeld, a three-time national unlimited hydroplane champion, died last Sunday at age 58.

Kropfeld survived numerous death-threatening accidents as a driver and was the test pilot when boat owner Bernie Little decided to put his drivers inside a capsule with an on-board oxygen system for safety purposes--an idea revolutionary at the time when racing officials felt it would be safer to have the driver in an open cockpit when the boat flipped.

“When we decided we had to build a capsule to keep our drivers alive, there was a lot of experimental work, dangerous work, to do and Jim Kropfeld did it without complaining,” Little said. “I’d say what he did has probably saved 10 or 15 lives since then, and then he has go and lose one to cancer. It just tears my heart out.”

Kropfeld won 22 national events driving Miss Budweiser, fourth on the all-time list behind Bill Muncey, Chip Hanauer and Dean Chenoweth and won championships in 1984, 1986 and 1987. He was inducted into the Unlimited Hydroplane Racing Assn. Hall of Fame in Seattle last year.

LAST LAPS

CART car owners Frank Arciero Sr. and Gerald Forsythe have formed a partnership to build a multipurpose track in Yuba County, north of Sacramento. Plans call for a 1.3-mile banked oval, drag strip and several road courses. Arciero said groundbreaking should take place next spring, with racing commencing in 2001.

Elton Julian, once one of America’s brightest young racing talents, is returning from international competition to drive a Swift in the Kool/Toyota Atlantic series this year. Julian, 24, has been out of racing since 1995 when he drove a Ferrari to second place in the World Sports Car class of the Daytona 24 Hours.

Arie Luyendyk and Tony Stewart were voted the most popular drivers in the Indy Racing League--and both are leaving the series. Luyendyk will drive only in the Indy 500, and Stewart will drive for Joe Gibbs’ NASCAR team in Winston Cup and Busch Grand National races. . . . Jay Drake, runner-up to Jason Leffler in the U.S. Auto Club midget series, has passed his IRL drivers test with a 213 mph lap at Indianapolis.

Billy Hamill, 1996 world speedway motorcycle champion from Monrovia, who was seriously injured in the first round of the 1998 championship and forced to miss the entire series, has been granted an exemption into the 24-rider 1999 Grand Prix field. . . . The local speedway season will open March 20 with the Spring Classic at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

The California Roadster Assn. will hold its fifth annual reunion Saturday night at Knott’s Berry Farm.