Team Makita Suzuki's Ricky Carmichael grabbed his first win of the season in Saturday night's second-round AMA Supercross Championship event at Phoenix.
The victory moved Carmichael into a share of the championship points lead, as the reigning world and AMA supercross king beat former champion Chad Reed by 2.5secs, with James Stewart a further 13secs behind, and unable to prevent his round one advantage from being wiped out.
The evening didn't get off to the best of starts for the defending champion, as he got caught up in a turn-one melee, before recovering to third place by the end of the eight laps, completing a Suzuki 1-3 behind team-mate Ivan Tedesco.
"I feel good, I'm happy to get the win and it was a good race for the fans," said Carmichael, who racked up his 130th combined AMA supercross and motocross victory aboard the new RM-Z450 four-stroke, "I was unhappy with the heat race, and pretty upset after it as I knew I was better than that."
The Floridian also suffered a poor start to the main event, but charged hard and picked off his competitors quickly. By mid-race, he had taken the lead and never looked back.
"It was a good race," he said, "I didn't get a good start, but I just tried to plug away and not make any mistakes. I made a few, but fortunately not big ones. The championship fight is turning out to be pretty good, but I'm trying to have patience and enjoy the moment - and the momentum. Hopefully, we'll all stay healthy and give the fans what they want to see - may the best man win!"
Tedesco held second place early on, behind holeshotter Jeremy McGrath, but he fell while challenging for the lead.
"I was in a good flow, but I guess I tried a little too hard to catch Jeremy," Tedesco sighed, "The track was really slick and the front end just washed out. No doubt about it, if you pushed too hard on that track, it was going to put you on the ground."
