15 times AMA Supercross/Motocross champion Ricky Carmichael surprised the motorsport world on Thursday by announcing that he will start a new career in NASCAR from next season.
Carmichael has signed a multi-year deal with the MB2 Motorsports team, which will see him competing in the junior ranks of NASCAR's tier system in 2007 before gradually climbing upwards towards his ultimate goal of a place in the premier Nextel Cup class.
The Floridian - considered one of the greatest Motocross riders of all time and the holder of a record 144 career AMA wins - only retired from full time motorcycle racing at the end of the 2006 season and, despite his new NASCAR deal, will still compete in around half of the 2007 AMA season.
Here, MB2 CEO Jay Frye talks about his exciting new deal with 'the Michael Jordan of motocross' while Carmichael himself speaks about his future racing plans - on both two and four wheels...
Q:
Jay, what does this deal mean to MB2 Motorsports?
Jay Frye:
Obviously it's a very exciting time for MB2 with our announcement last week and this weekend with Ricky. Ricky is in our opinion the Michael Jordan of motocross, one of the most determined riders ever, he's a winner. He's going to be a huge, huge part of MB2's future going forward. We're very excited about our process from our current Nextel Cup drivers going forward into next year to the development program we're developing that will bear fruit over the next couple years.
It's a great day. Again, we're real excited about last weekend's announcement. We were really wanting to tell people last weekend what we were doing, but we had to wait till this weekend to talk about Ricky. Big day for MB2.
Q:
Ricky, I know this has been dream of yours for a long time. What does this mean to see it finally come to fruition?
Ricky Carmichael:
It's amazing. I'll tell you, like you guys say, it is a dream for me. It's definitely very challenging. It's something that I'm just ecstatic about to link up also with MB2. I think it's going to be a great team and then obviously hearing the news last week that you guys let out, it's amazing. It's going to be great. Like I said, man, I can't say enough. It's just been a dream of mine. I'm very, very ecstatic about it.
Q:
You have a big weekend, Ricky, coming up. Tell everybody what's going on.
Ricky Carmichael:
We're racing this weekend in Las Vegas. We got basically -- you know, it's not a race that's in a series. It's a little one-off race that Live Nation promotes. It's in the MGM Garden Arena. It's a two-night event is what it is. Little bit smaller than a normal Supercross, if you will, like the Supercrosses in the big stadiums.
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