Ricky Carmichael Greatest Rides

RC against James Stewart at Washougal 2006

Who is this Charmichaels guy you're speaking of.....

He was a real charmer

This is Ricky CHARmichael guys

Pontiac SX crash and back to 2nd. NateDog won that night on the Honda 450.

2002 Pontiac SX. It was a great race even though he did not win it. 

2005 Atlanta SX. Battled with Reed, fell down, then re-passed Reed in almost the same exact spot to take the win.

First year on 250 outdoors, lots of gnarly battles between him and Tortelli 

Southwick 01, 04

Anaheim 3 2001

Daytona 2003

Binghamton 2006

Ernee 05

MXdN 03

Millville 03, 04, 07

Budds 07

Shoug 99

Pretty much every outdoor moto in 2004.

Millville 2004 - I didn't think it was possible to go that fast on that track.  

That Donny Schmit jump was insane the first year in '04! I wish I had a smartphone then. James Stewart jumped it the first lap of practice ON HIS KX125 when it was smooth. Barely cased it too. Lifted that bike harder than Larocco's leap. Someone caught a photo of it. He looked like he's doing a half superman with the bike vertical.

That's  right, it was the first year of that jump, it was insane (120ish ft) and a short approach too.

Only a few guys were hitting it, RC/Windham/James Stewart/16 year old Mike Allessi/and some crazy bastard from Iowa. 

Maybe Reed, can't remember.  

This ? 

Haha!! Forgot about that! Whatever happened to him?

Was it the Wonder Warthog guy who did the RC voodoo doll.  Remember he'd post a lot about wanting RC to lose on Motonews then ended up meeting him and giving him the doll.   I think ??

That is correct!

Yes! But the one I saw was from behind him and zoomed in. Looked so awesome. I thought it was a Cudby picture, it was perfectly focused.

I always count 05 nationals as undefeated as well since he didn't loose an overall.

What would be interesting and I don't have enough knowledge to speak to it, but would be some amature stuff from some of the big am races. 

Two battles at MM cone to mind; 1. Vs KDub 4 stroke vs smoker, 2. Vs James with him launching past….   * Im sure there are dozens of others, too

Not a race win but quite the display of courage - 2005 Anaheim 1, Carmichael went for and jumped the triple on the muddiest mess of a supercross track I had ever seen, and during an absolute downpour. I know he did it on the first lap of the main, I didn't see anybody else do it. Whether he did it again don't remember, but him sacking up to leap that jump in that mucky mess was amazing.

I was never an RC guy but A3 01’ is his most legendary race. Him chasing down MC in the house MC built was the official passing of the torch.

Others have mentioned some really good ones. The only single race that comes to mind that hasn't been mentioned is Southwick 06. 

Besides individual races, the impressive thing is the story behind them. 04 Outdoors perfect season is impressive, but more impressive considering some were writing him off after his SX season ending knee injury. 05SX after switching to Suzuki and many expecting it to be a repeat of MC's Honda-to-Suzuki slump. Or his few wins in 07 outdoors might not seem as impressive compared to his other years, until you remember he was retired but still won every race he chose to compete in. 

RC was the opposite of Jett Lawrence. Whereas Jett is always low in the RPM, meticulous with his tire placement, barely sounds like he's going fast, RC's style was WIDE OPEN and you could hear how much faster he was going. Where others would let off a bit through rough sections going into corners he would come in going about 5-10 mph faster and slam into corners like he was trying to kill the berm. Never anything elegant or stylish about his technique but damn impressive. 

His 1st win at Gainsville in 97. I was there the word was it’s his home track & he raced there for yrs & Lamson was really sick. 97 Indy landing from a triple he 1/2 landed on a rider & broke his clutch lever off. That was his 1st sx. 97 Millville he was a lot faster. 1st lap off the big single that you landed in the whoops . He launched way higher than anybody.  Everyone said his luck would run out because it looked like he was out of control. But he won the championship.  97 or 98 exploding a hay bail on the big down hill at GH . It didn’t effect him at all , he kept it wo. Kinda showed everyone that’s how fast you hv to go to match me. Every race after that it really showed how much harder he rode.  Early on he always had a section or jump that that was like how did he pull that off.  Do some jumps no other 125 rider could. 

I might say Budds Creek 2007 because of the wider context that ride implies.

For yrs prior James (and this isn't throwing shade at James at all, who of course is also a phenominal rider) was going to be the guy to overthrow the current king - and when you saw how he performed on the 125 it looked impossible that he wouldn't do to RC what RC had done to Jeremy... But Ricky broke the script, especially outdoors. Now on a retirement yr, not even racing the full season, with James as comfortable as he's likely to get o the Kawi, Ricky is still able to go unbeaten.