2003 St. Louis 250cc Main (Chad Reed Vs. Ricky Carmichael #1)
97This is the 2003 250cc main event from the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, MO.
In 2003, Honda's Ricky Carmichael was in the driver's seat for his 3rd consecutive 250cc Supercross title. After coming off his 7th win of the season at the last round at Daytona, Carmichael led Team Yamaha rookie Chad Reed by 1 whole race (25 points) in the home stretch of the season. As opposed to Carmichael's 7 wins, Chad Reed had only won 2 races, but his last win was nearly a month ago at round 6 in San Diego.
While Carmichael's worst finish of 2003 was a 4th at Phoenix, Chad Reed had two 6th places at Anaheim 2 and Minneapolis to his credit. Reed dominated the first round at Anaheim, but he was forced to settle for 2nd place finishes to not just Carmichael, but Team Kawasaki's Ezra Lusk at Phoenix, and a 3rd at Indianapolis. He would battle with his teammate David Vuillemin at San Diego before he made an early pass and dominated that race. Carmichael crashed after moving around Vuillemin and finished 3rd. From then on, trouble followed. Reed took a 6th, two 2nds and a 3rd while Carmichael rode away with 4 straight wins. For Reed, his chance of giving Carmichael a run for the title that David Vuillemin failed to do in 2002, was beginning to disappear.
In the main, Reed finally had another chance at win #3 for the season. 125cc West rider, Team Suzuki's Danny Smith #29 barely squeaked out the holeshot, but the race quickly turned into a Reed/Carmichael battle. It was the first time in 2003 that the world had witnessed anything like this. Bad starts and crashes kept that from happening for much of the 2003 year. The one to make the last mistake was Ricky Carmichael when he crashed into the tuffblocks in the 2nd rhythm section. Carmichael would fight back for a 2nd place finish, but Reed rode away to his 3rd win of the season.
St. Louis was the beginning of a 6-race win streak for Chad Reed. Unfortunately for Reed, Carmichael took 2nd in those remaining 6 races to keep Reed at bay for Supercross title #3. The battles were still there for the world to see though. In the end, Carmichael won the title by just 7 points, but a knee injury in November while preparing for the 2004 World Supercross GP in Europe knocked RC out for 2004.
Enjoy.