What happens now? Reigning AMA Amp’d Mobile Supercross Champion Ricky Carmichael went out like a lion, putting in what can be described as an incredible effort to beat James Stewart in Orlando, given the circumstances: RC’s last SX race, the birth of his two children Kadin and Elise, and a red-hot Stewart. RC didn’t win, but for just about everyone—including James—it didn’t seem to matter.

Carmichael and Scott Taylor arrived by helicopter Saturday morning after the birth of RC’s twins photo: Simon Cudby

Now the SX tour heads to Indianapolis and the RCA Dome while Ricky starts racing cars in Florida. Stewart holds a sizeable lead over Chad Reed in the rankings, and unless James implodes, it’s going to be hard to catch up, even if Reed wins straight-up, because there’s no one to get in between the San Manuel Yamaha rider and the points leader. Think about it: If Reed swept the last five rounds, with Stewart second, he would only gain 15 points—that would only get him halfway there.

Of course, Stewart’s made big, BIG mistakes before—including one right here at the RCA Dome back in 2004, where he pile-drove himself into the ground (literally right at my feet, as I was standing in front of the starting gate). But lately #7 has looked more and more in control. In fact, check out this startling statistic:

If you count his St. Louis collision with Reed as a tie for the lead, Stewart has either won or crashed while leading the last 17 AMA Supercross races.

Stewart now controls his own destiny in the chase for the title photo: Simon Cudby

To listen to tomorrow night’s live webcast of the Indianapolis SX, just log onto www.supercrossonline.com  around 7 p.m. EST. Former Yamaha factory Jim Holley and former quadcycle privateer Jason Weigandt will call the action. Hopefully, Mike LaRocco will drop by the booth and say hello.

Quick note from TFS’ Weekend Window: Andrew Short is “in” for Indianapolis.

Also, Nick Wey is looking forward to returning to racing as soon as possible too. He told David Izer of DMXS last night that it might not be until Las Vegas. Right now he is on a week-to-week basis as his thumb continues to heal from the surgery he had four weeks ago. According to MSR’s Dave Casella, “Nick had high hopes to return for his home town race (Detroit SX), but he will be unable to confirm until we get a little closer. Worst case scenario Wey will make his comeback at the Hangtown National, but I suspect a Vegas SX appearance for sure. You can also catch Nick at the Tucker Rocky open house for all it’s local Dallas dealers Thursday March 29th.”

LaRocco's gift to Rathkamp photo: Scott Wallenberg

Oh, and speaking of Indiana’s favorite motocross son, Mike LaRocco—always the class act—wanted to thank some of his longtime sponsors. He gave out this memento to Bob Rathkamp at Gaerne USA. Nice!

If you’re glued to the TV watching March Madness this weekend, don’t forget to tune into Amp’d Mobile Supercross as well. The crazy Orlando Lites will be on Saturday at 6:00 P.M. EST on SPEED, and the Indianapolis AMA Supercross main will be on CBS Sunday at 12:00 P.M. EST. Be sure to check your local listings!

What you will see at the beginning of the Lites main event is one of the strangest, most violent crashes you will probably ever witness. It started when some of the riders coming over the first triple jumped and some didn’t. It caused Ryan Sipes to come down on Yamaha of Troy’s Matt Goerke, which caused his bike to shoot across the track and slam into Ryan Dungey, who was coming the other way in second place.

Furthermore, Sipes’ bike went over into MotoworldRacing.com’s Branden Jesseman, taking him out. It all brought out a red flag, and by the time things were sorted, Sipes had a broken leg, Dungey’s bike was too mangled to continue, and Jesseman’s hand, arm, and elbow were scraped up. He got back in the race, then somehow ended up winning for the first time in four years.

Fingers were quickly pointed at everyone, including Red Bull KTM’s Mike Alessi for not jumping in traffic, but David Vuillemin placed the blame squarely on the track design. In a post he entitled “Red Card” on Mototalk, DV12 wrote:

It was mayhem off the start in the Lites’ main photo: TFS

“It's not soccer (real football) but the AMA and Dirt Wurx need a red card for today by not handling a dangerous triple. From practice 1 to the Lites Main event, the first triple caused a lot of injuries. The take off in the middle was so flat and had no lift. The lites guys would case the crap out of it, guys were jumping on each other! Sipes, Marshall, Lange, Goerke (who flew into Dungey who was in the whoops) all crashed and some got really hurt because of that stupid leap!

“I hope they will learn and do the necessary to keep us safe out there,” added Vuillemin. “Having a leatt brace is good but having a safe track is way more important...”

Ryan Dungey got an unlucky break at Orlando photo: Simon Cudby

EJ caught up with Chad Reed yesterday to talk about all things supercross, James and Ricky, and even the 250F troops. With all of the talk about RC’s Talladega transition, many people have forgotten that this is what Chad wants to do as well, only in Australia’s version of stock car racing. Last fall, Reed drove a Holden Commodore Australian V8 Supercar (the Holden’s power-to-weight ratio is very close to a Nextel Cup car).

“I loved it. I thought it was awesome,” said Reed. “To be honest, I’m more excited about that than just about anything. It was so much fun. As soon as supercross is over and my obligations here are fulfilled, I’m going to go right back home [to Australia] to do another test. The team I’m working with—and I’m in with one of the best teams—has a two-day test set up for me.

"I guess my situation is a lot like Ricky Carmichael’s. The guy involved with the team I’m working with is a big moto fan and offered me a deal to drive the car and be there with me when I’m driving to tell me when I’m too fast or too slow in certain sections.”

To check out the whole interview, click here.

Chad had some trouble in practice at Orlando photo: Simon Cudby

The more things change, the more they stay the same, right? On Tuesday morning, brand-new SX retiree Ricky Carmichael woke up, saw his brand new kids, checked his schedule and realized he was open to pretty much do what he wanted.

So what does a 27-year-old former supercrosser with newfound time and more money than he can ever spend in one lifetime do? He went out and rode some supercross! No mechanics, no pit boards, no one counting laps, just Carmichael and his dirt bike, plus a few friends.

“It was like a championship week,” joked Terry, his close friend. “That means we don’t want to see him get hurt, and the only thing he has to work on is the goggle toss.”

Of course, RC is racing this weekend, at Lake City above Gainesville. It was supposed to be just your basic local stock car race, but that’s changing. When motocross TV producer B.J. Smith called the facility about press credentials, they just kind of laughed and said, “We don’t care if you walk around with a camera.”

But with Bobby Ginn jetting his top drivers in, like Joe Nemechek to watch between Bristol races, and Nextel Cup leader Mark Martin making good on his word that he would not be racing Bristol this weekend so he could watch RC and his son Matt who’s also racing, the tiny track will be THE place to be in Florida this Saturday night.

Big James wishes RC luck in his car career photo: Simon Cudby

“I can tell you, though, that this Late Model race is going to be the most promoted Late Model race ever.” said Jay Frye, general manager of Ginn Racing.

Here’s the deal: There are TWO tracks in Lake City, one dirt and one paved. RC is going to the paved one—Columbia Motorsports Park—but people seem to be calling the other one. If you want to go check it out, pit gates open at 4, racing at 7:30 p.m. RC will be the 25-lap Super Late Models feature. For more, check this out.

One funny thing: RC will be drawing spoons for his starting position on Saturday. When I asked him when the last time he had to draw spoons for gate pick, he laughed, “Loretta’s ‘96!” Good luck, champ.

By the way, Mark Martin, who leads the Nextel Cup points, has not missed a start in 19 years, which means after a Cal Ripken-like streak of 621 straight starts, Martin is parking the No. 01 Army Chevrolet to help Carmichael and his son.

The ever-versatile Jean-Michel Bayle has been working up a new website.

Also, last night we got official word about Moto X joining the X Games in Los Angeles this summer, with Ricky Carmichael participating. The X Games is a huge showcase for action sports athletes, and including a 16-rider motocross race will be interesting.

No sooner did the announcement show up on the Racer X website when I got an IM from JT$: “Who’s ass do I have to kiss to get in the X Games? I’m offering incentives! I will wash cars, babysit, whatever!”

Trey Canard was a revelation at Oak Hill photo: Greg Bixby

Now here’s a note from Bad Billy, who spent last weekend in Texas:

It was my first time at the GNC International Motocross Final at Oak Hill MX Park, and after attending the event, it definitely won’t be my last! Oak Hill is a top-notch facility near Decatur, Texas, where Tom and Wil Hahn call home. I ran into Wil at the track, and he was wearing a sling on his right shoulder due to a broken collarbone he sustained at Lake Whitney. He told me he was giving Trey Canard all he could handle, and that he was really looking forward to racing at Oak Hill and being able to sleep in his own bed at night. But keep your eyes on the younger Hahn—he’s going to be turning some heads later this summer.

But I was overly impressed by the current crop of amateur racers. Seeing riders on 65s do the Bubba Scrub is pretty breathtaking, and there are several A-class racers who we’ll be seeing on the starting line of an AMA pro national soon enough. The fastest rider of the week was Canard, and the SoBe No Fear/Samsung Mobile Honda squad already has him signed up for 2008 and beyond. Great call, J.C. Canard won a title, and he would’ve had a few more if not for some mechanical problems.

Austin Stroupe is coming to supercross in 2008 photo: Greg Bixby

Team Green’s Austin Stroupe was also impressive, taking home a couple championships, along with his teammate P.J. Larsen. It was also the first A-class race for Suzuki’s Nico Izzi. Izzi rode well, but I was really surprised when I saw Oklahoma’s Johnny Marley catch and pass Izzi in one of the final A-class motos on Sunday. Remember Johnny Marley? Yeah, he’s still around and still knows how to go really fast on a Yamaha. I can still picture him on a YZ80 wearing #90 at Loretta Lynn’s.

One of the most impressive amateurs of the entire week was KTM’s Blake Wharton. His best lap times were just a few seconds off of Canard’s, and his riding looked flawless. Wharton rode so many different classes, I lost track! He also showed some amazing versatility by switching from a 105cc supermini to a 125cc two-stroke and then a KTM250SX-F four-stroke!

Back in the January 2007 issue of Racer X I did a feature on the Little Red Rocket—better known as the new Honda CRF150R. Well, it was the first time I actually saw Honda’s new CRF150R in action, and all I have to say is WOW. Honda’s main guy, Justin Barcia, took the Supermini championship on the bike, and I also saw Mike Craig’s son, (yeah, that Mike Craig) Christian, tearing it up on a 150R.

As for the mini classes, the battle in the 85cc (7-11) class between Cooper Webb and Chris Alldredge reminded me of the Carmichael-Stewart battle in Orlando. And in the Vet classes, Shaun Kalos took a championship, as well as New England’s Keith S. Johnson. (Remember when Johnson opened up the 2001 outdoor national season with a fifth overall at Glen Helen on a Team EZ-Wider Yamaha?) 1991 250cc World MX Champion Trampas Parker was also in the house on a KTM.

Overall, it was a fantastic week of racing, and hats off to Oak Hill for promoting such a top-notch event. I also hung out Wes Williams, Ben Bixby, Brent Stallo and Ricky Krishart from the GK Films crew a bit - they were doing daily video updates of the event. Those guys worked pretty much non-stop around the clock, and their level of dedication is pretty evident in the quality of the films. Check them out over at www.racerxfilms.com.

Red Bull is also stepping up their support in amateur motocross. I saw several riders wearing Red Bull-painted helmets, and after talking to a few people I learned of the Red Bull Jr. Ams (JAMS) program. The program is made up of six top amateur riders, which includes Justin Barcia, Ashley Fiolek, Brandon Mays, Cooper Webb, Joey Savatgy and Phil Nicoletti.

Now it’s Ping’s turn:

Last weekend was round three of the WORCS off-road series in Lake Havasu and, unfortunately, I signed up to compete. The track was so rough it made Southwick look like a peewee track, and the temperature was hovering right around the 100-degree mark! I didn’t exactly set the world on fire (though it was hot enough there to combust spontaneously). I’m still getting cramps in my calves when I walk up stairs, and despite the fact that I didn’t touch a beer, green or otherwise, on St. Patrick’s Day, my urine is the color of a pint of Guinness. It’s a dehydration thing and the doctors say I should be fine after I get some fluids replaced intravenously.

Ryan Hughes won the event, and after two hours of riding wide open through the desert, the current points leader stumbled off his bike and showed everyone near his pit area what projectile vomiting looks like. He looked like Skeletor walking up to the podium to get his trophy. I don’t want to give too much away because you’ll see the whole story in an upcoming issue of Racer X Illustrated, but it was an interesting weekend.

I talked with the King of Supercross this week, Jeremy McGrath. MC is finally back on a bike and made his first visit back to the Honda test track this week.

“It was weird at first,”