Carmichael Gets Upstaged by Ferry

One week after winning his 13th consecutive stadium supercross race and his first supercross title, Ricky Carmichael showed that he is not yet Superman.

The hottest dirt rider on the planet failed to extend his winning streak across separate series on Sunday when he finished fourth at the season-opening U.S. Motocross Championships at Glen Helen Raceway Park.

One of Carmichael’s fellow Floridians, Tim Ferry of Largo, won his first 250cc outdoor national. He finished second in both races, called motos, with the combined score determining the overall winner.

Frenchman Sebastien Tortelli took second overall, and Kevin Windham of Centreville, Miss., took third. Tortelli won the first moto and was fifth in the second; Windham was third in both motos.

Carmichael, 21, of Havana, Fla., tied Jeremy McGrath’s supercross title with 13 consecutive wins and 14 in a season last week in Las Vegas at the season-ending supercross event. Carmichael has his cross hairs on McGrath’s 1996 record of 21 victories in a year in the AMA-sanctioned stadium and outdoor series. Carmichael won nine races last season in winning the 250cc outdoor title. His next victory on his Kawasaki KX250 will have to wait, primarily because he made two mistakes in the first race.

After taking the lead into the first turn and ascending an off-camber turn atop one of three large peaks on the twisting 2.5-mile circuit, Carmichael discovered his racing line had been taken away.

“They moved some hay bales into my line,” he said. “I didn’t see them until I ran over them.”

Twice.

Carmichael dropped to 37th in the 39-man field, but salvaged his day by passing most of the field. Failing to put him away was a mistake, Carmichael said, “if they want to win the title.”

Carmichael still made a statement, winning the second moto. “The pressure’s on everybody else now,” he said.

Ferry is happy to have it. It is only his second professional victory, his first since winning a 125cc national in 1995 as a Suzuki factory rider. Now riding for Team Yamaha, Ferry followed Tortelli to the finish line in the first moto, and Carmichael in the second.

“The track was brutally rough,” Ferry said. “All the rain created more traction, but made the bumps bigger.”

KTM factory rider Grant Langston of South Africa swept the 125cc motos, becoming only the third rider to win an AMA outdoor national in his rookie 125cc race. Langston, however, is the 125cc world champion.

The other riders to do so are Tortelli and Jean-Michel Bayle.

Michael Brown of Piney Flats, Tenn., took second in both motos, and Travis Pastrana, the defending champion from Annapolis, Md., was third with third- and fourth-place finishes.