Looking back at that day one could say it was the end of one era, and the beginning of a new. A true changing of the guard.
Looking back at that day one could say it was the end of one era, and the beginning of a new. A true changing of the guard.
By: Paul Quesnel
Photo by: Chris Deutschen (borrowed from zGoogle)
It was January 20th, 2001. George Bush was sworn in as president of the United States, Floyd Mayweather was named the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world after knocking out Diego Coralles, and in the home of American indoor dirt-bike racing, Jeremy McGrath would win his last ever AMA supercross race. Looking back at that day one could say it was the end of one era, and the beginning of a new. A true changing of the guard. At the time though, no one would have guessed that the King’s reign was about to come to an abrupt and definite halt.
The beginning of 2001 was a great time to be a fan of American supercross. With a roster that included legends such as McGrath, Carmichael, Lusk, Larocco, Windam, Vuillemin, and many more, the season was quickly looking like it had the potential to be one of the greatest in the history of the sport. Moreover, many people believed that this was going to be the year where they finally saw someone (Carmichael) with the ability to hang with Jeremy on a regular basis. But while there was a plentiful amount of hype surrounding the newly crowned outdoor champion in Carmichael, the first win of the season would go to McGrath who dominated the Anaheim opener by leading the main event from start to finish. From there it was onto San Diego where RC would win his first supercross race in the 250 class (besides Daytona) in what was a great back and forth duel between he and MC. For round three it was back to Jeremy’s backyard, otherwise known as Anaheim. After getting straight up beat the week before though, the chink had already been established in the King’s armor. Ricky was quickly gaining confidence in his indoor skills and to dethrone McGrath in his own house would surely demoralize the seven time supercross champion. But in a great display of skill and determination, MC would pass the young motocross sensation on the opening laps of the main event and put on an amazing ride to erase any doubt in people’s mind about him not being the man to beat anymore.
The tone of the series had been established and the stage was now set for what looked like was going to be a great seesaw battle for the championship. With McGrath winning two out of the first three races and Carmichael showing he could consistency run with the King, the fans were getting ready to witness the first legitimate title fight they had seen in years. The sport was all primed up for a change. It was no longer the Jeremy McGrath show. It was no longer a one man show. Little did anyone know they were about to simply trade one tyrant for another.
January 20th, 2001 marked Jeremy McGrath’s 72nd career supercross win. It was a number that didn’t mean a whole heck of a lot at the time, but would continue to reverberate throughout the sport for many years to come. From there, American motocross and supercross had unknowingly entered the Carmichael era. After MC’s victory at Anaheim, Ricky would go on to win the last thirteen races of the season, matching McGraths’s 1996 record of consecutive race wins and dethroning the King along the way. In 2002 it was Carmichael again earning the supercross championship by winning eleven out of the sixteen races while MC struggled to make it on the podium, only doing so a handful of times.
Never before in the history of the sport had we seen the changing of the guard take place so quickly. Although Carmichael did show some flashes of brilliance in the two years preceding 2001, there was really no indication that he would completely take over the King’s reign of domination like he did. After McGraths’s final victory at Anaheim, nobody the next day would have ever guessed that it would be his last. At the time he was only twenty nine years old (Chad Reeds age), he was leading the points series, he was still the most skillful rider on a supercross track, and he was still the King.
Smashcut to St. Louis on March 6, 2007. Seemingly a regular day just like any other, the race would go down in history as the day Ricky Carmichael sampled his last taste of supercross glory. By this time in his career, RC had won an astonishing twelve titles in the premier class and had pretty much broke every record in the book except for a few of McGrath’s. Unlike the King though, RC was very aware of the storm brewing on the horizon. In fact, Ricky had known it was coming for years. Ever since the name James “Bubba” Stewart was uttered in a sentence pertaining to supercross, everyone had pegged the young phenom as the one who would take the top spot away from the great Ricky Carmichael, just like they had predicted RC would eventually overthrow McGrath.
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MC in the year the King was felled. |
When Ricky first turned pro, there really wasn’t any forewarning about how dominate he would be. Sure he was always especially fast outdoors and fairly quick indoors but coming into the sport he really didn’t have anything on Bubba when it came to the hype. From an early age it was like James was being groomed to beat his fellow Floridian and to everyone in the moto community it was pretty clear that he was going to be the future of the sport. It was almost as if with McGrath and Ricky there was always a question mark concerning RC beating the King indoors but with Bubba and Ricky it was like a foregone conclusion that James would quickly dethrone RC. The big question was could he do it in the first year?
James made the leap into the big bike class in the beginning of 2005 and in an impressive effort he scored a solid 5th in his first main event. After breaking his wrist at round two, Bubba would return before seasons end and win three out of the last five races, leaving many people to wonder what would have happened if he was there the whole series. After that the 2006 season turned out to be one of the greatest title chases in the history of the sport. Coming into the final round in Las Vegas, Ricky, James, and Chad were only separated by five points. In the end it was James who won the race while Ricky won the war and the title. Nevertheless, you could tell it was too close for comfort for the now 5 time supercross champion in Carmichael.
As 2007 began to draw closer, Ricky knew that his reign was quickly coming to an end and it was time to make the decision. He could either stay in the sport and work twice as hard just to potentially lose the championship to James anyway or he could move onto a future career. RC is very well known for his dislike of losing and it seemed like at that point in his life it just wasn’t worth it for him. He was twenty seven years old, he had made more than enough money, he had already accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish in the sport, and now he wanted to make the transition into stock car racing. He knew that James would inevitably take over the series anyway and he didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of beating the GOAT for a championship. So before the 2007 season started Ricky made the announcement that this was going to be his last year in the series and that he was only going to race a couple of select events. After taking his 48th and final win on March 6th at the Edward Jones dome in St.Louis, RC competed in two more supercross races, finishing second to James in both of them. He had effectively delivered the sport into the, “Stewart Era.” At least that’s what we thought.
The one big difference between Carmichael and Jeremy is that instead of having someone else decide how and when you fall from grace like McGrath did, Ricky determined when he was going to pass the torch and wasn’t going to let James just take it from him. The problem with going out on top like that is the fact that Ricky could have had at least one more championship to his name if he stayed another year. Another issue about doing it RC’s way is how it almost looked like he was running away from Bubba. If James never came into the sport you have to think that Carmichael would have probably stayed at least one more year and RC just throwing in the towel is almost like him saying,” well I’m taking my championship and going home.” Nevertheless, you can’t really blame him for leaving when he did. He had already won everything there was to win in the sport and to go out on top is something athletes are rarely able to do.
Seeing McGrath go out the way he did was a sad thing at the time. He was and is a universally beloved champion and to see him go from looking primed for another title in the beginning of ’01 to never winning another race in his life must have been a hard pill for him to swallow. The good thing about going out the way MC did is that he can still hold his head up high. Even though he didn’t win he gave it everything he had and he stood up to Carmichael for a number of years even though he probably knew RC was faster. Unlike the case with Ricky and James where RC bowed out of the sport before James entered his third full season in the class, McGrath stayed in there with Carmichael for his first four supercross season’s on the big bike, losing the title to him in years three in four. So if you really think about it, the two situations are very similar because if Ricky would have stayed for another two seasons in ’07 and ’08 there’s a pretty good chance he would have lost to Bubba both times and RC’s career would have ended the exact same way as McGrath’s. Another good thing about the way McGrath left is the farewell tour he did. Instead of remembering him being frustrated and losing to the surging red-head, we can now remember him as the cool old guy getting holeshot’s and doing nac-nacs on the opening lap.
In motocross, we often remember the great kings for how they left the sport as much as we remember them for the titles they won. However, there will never be an absolute perfect way for them to make their departure. Whether they go out on top of the mountain or go out being pushed off the mountain there will always be positives and negatives to both. The only thing they can be certain of is that sooner or later, someone is going to come along to steal their crown. As Robert Bolt once said, “death comes to us all, even to Kings he comes.”
