This is the 250cc main event from Texas Stadium in Irving, TX.
In 2003, Honda's Ricky Carmichael #4 was only 3 races away (counting this one) from his 3rd consecutive 250cc AMA Supercross Championship. Unfortunately, Ricky was on a 3-race losing streak because his title rival, Team Yamaha's Chad Reed #22 was making a late season charge with 3 straight wins of his own, including a clutch win at the last race in Pontiac, especially with Chad winning that race without a crash from Ricky. Unfortunately for Carmichael, the start at Pontiac was key and Reed got the better start with the holeshot and Carmichael starting in 6th.
The season began in Anaheim in early January. Chad Reed took an easy win over the competition, with Ricky Carmichael taking a 2nd place after getting boo'd by the crowd following an incident with Team Suzuki's Travis Pastrana #199 in qualifying. Team Kawasaki's Ezra Lusk #11 battled with Reed in Phoenix and beat him in the heat race, and the main event. Phoenix was Lusk's first win since Indianapolis in April 1999, when Lusk was riding for Team Honda; Phoenix eventually turned out to be Lusk's last career Supercross win. Ricky Carmichael got on the board next at Anaheim 2 while Chad Reed had his first bad race with a 6th place, and surrendered the points lead to Carmichael. Ricky would reel off 3 in a row from A2 to Anaheim 3 before Chad Reed would win San Diego after Ricky crashed and finished 3rd behind Reed and his Yamaha teammate #12 David Vuillemin. Carmichael then reeled off 4 in a row from Minneapolis-Daytona, to total 7 wins for the season, but after Daytona, things were different.
Chad Reed beat Carmichael at St. Louis for the 3rd time. They engaged in a titanic battle for half the race, until it ended when Ricky crashed into the tuffblocks. Ricky and Chad got bad starts at the next round in Houston; Chad had a 9th place start but Ricky Carmichael crashed in the first turn with AMSOIL Honda's Travis Preston #34, who was racing the 250cc class out East. At the last round in Pontiac, Reed led all 20 laps while Ricky got sandwiched in the first turn and ended up 6th out of the first turn. Carmichael reeled Reed in little by little, but a mistake off a double ended Ricky's chances, and Chad Reed won his 3rd consecutive race of the season, 5 overall.
In this race, Moto XXX Honda's Larry Ward #10 got out to the holeshot, but Carmichael quickly disposed of his former Team Kawasaki teammate and tried to run away with his first win in 3 races. Chad Reed started out 4th and battled his way into 2nd and to challenge the 2-time defending champ. Reed managed to pass Carmichael, and the two engaged in another battle -- the first since St. Louis. Despite passes back and forth, Chad Reed reached back and beat Ricky for the 4th time in a row, and his 6th win of the season. Chad would win out the final 2 races at Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, but he fell shy of the Supercross title by just 7 points. Unfortunately, Team Honda has not won a Supercross title since.
Enjoy.
11 сен 2024
