I’m not an industry insider. Like 99% of the fans who stand in the mud next to the fence at Unadilla, High Point, and South Wick cheering for Ricky Carmichael and eating over-priced hot dogs at the same time, this is probably the closest I’m ever going to come to a factory ride. All I know of the sport is what I read in magazines and see on the sporadic coverage cable television affords the sport of motocross. All I know of riding comes from the YZ 125 in my garage, and for a guy who’s thirty-two-years-old, stands over six feet tall, and weighs over two hundred pounds, the fact that I still ride a one-twenty-five should speak for itself.
And like most fans, I sometimes suffer from delusions of grandeur: Kevin Windham suffers a rare lapse of judgment during practice at Budds Creek and finds himself with a fractured ankle. The boys at Factory Connection, in need of a replacement rider, spot me roaming the pits carrying a pair of foot longs and ninety-eight ounces soda. Translating the extraordinary balance required to chow down on not one but two monster hot dogs into superb riding skill, the factory guys come sprinting over and beg me to ride Windham’s bike for the first 250 moto.
Needless to say, this never happens. No matter how many deep-fried double-stuffed Oreos I can pound after three orders of cheese fries, the people running the show at American Honda don’t seem to hold much interest in a guy who has a tendency to get lapped in the local 25+ B class.
So despite my delusions, Kevin Windham is not going to mangle any precious appendages during practice and it would seem as though, despite the opinions of some of the guys wearing green at the racetrack, Ricky Carmichael is still the man to beat.
Only two races have come and gone, but judging from how bad RC has taken it to the rest of his competition, it’s hard to imagine him losing. At the beginning of the season, I, like so many others, I’m sure, felt confident that James Stewart would throw a leg over his KX 250 (and if you’re thinking like I’m thinking, you know as well as I do that Kawasaki offered to let him ride the four stroke, although Mr. Stewart probably declined with a polite, “I beat the four strokes on my two stroke, and I can do it again with everybody else.