Morgantown, W. Va. (April 19, 2012) – After much anticipation, MX Sports and Ricky Carmichael are thrilled to announce the 2012 return of the highly regarded Ricky Carmichael University (RCU), now expanding to the west coast and for the first time ever, hitting European dirt for an exclusive stop in the UK.

“Due to the success of the amateur supercross, we were forced to expand RCAMSX to two days and unfortunately we weren’t able to hold RCU in Daytona anymore,” said Carmichael. “But we’re excited to be able to give students on the west coast and around the world the opportunity to take part in RCU. It’s amazing to see this turn into an international event!”

Europe’s inaugural RCU event will take place at Fat Cat Moto Parc in Doncaster, UK on Monday, June 18 and Tuesday, June 19, where students have the opportunity to learn from 15-Time Champion Ricky Carmichael. The crew will head to Lake Elsinore on Monday, September 10, following the final round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship.

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It seems that just yesterday we were at Anaheim for the first round of the SX season and now after Las Vegas SX, the 2013 season is in the rear view. As I was on the plane traveling there I was in shock out how fast the season passed us by. Never the less, I was excited to get there for a little work and watch the guys race their last SX of the year and to watch the two Lites champs square off against one another in the Dave Coombs Sr. Memorial East vs West Shootout. I have to admit I wasn’t anticipating much from the Supercross class.

Prior to the race I had an appearance at the X Ryderz store in Henderson, NV for Fox Racing. It was the grand opening for this particular store and it is also a new account for Fox. Chad (Reed) and I made the trip out there and I have to say the marketing people for the store and Fox did a great job promoting the event. There was a huge line there waiting for us made up mostly of moto fans. It was a great way to kick off the weekend.

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Has been a while since the last time I was in New Orleans. I believe the last time I was there was in 2002 for the Supercross race back when I was still racing for Honda. So I was looking forward to going back and checking out the Superdome and watching some racing, and how could we not take a trip down to Bourbon Street.

This was a perfect trip; we flew over from Tally Saturday morning and arrived at the track just in time for track walk. When I walked in I forgot how big the place was. After walking around and checking out most of the track I really was not impressed with dirt or the layout for that matter. In my opinion the track had way too many 90 degree turns and looked like it had no flow to it at all. So I was a bit disheartened after seeing that but never the less was optimistic about some good racing going down for sure, at least in the lites class. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a couple years since I have been to the Indy Supercross but I always enjoy going for many reasons. It’s relatively easy flying in, I like the city and it is also the city where I raced my first professional Supercross race 15 years ago which was then called the RCA dome that is no longer there. Now it’s the Lucas Oil dome across the street from where the RCA dome used to be.

After walking the track I was surprised at how the dirt looked, each year it seems the dirt gets drier and Indy SX was always known for being very tacky and rutty. It was definitely not like it used to be from that standpoint; but after watching the first couple rounds of practice I have to say that the dirt was better than I thought it would be so that was cool. As I was watching the Supercross class I was down on the track and up close and I couldn’t help but notice when James was putting his fast laps in that they weren’t picture perfect, I really didn’t think much more of it after watching but after looking back on how the night ended for him I found it kind of ironic, even though that probably didn’t have anything to do with what happened to him. Watching practice these days is very interesting. Now that each practice is timed and there is a huge scoring pylon on the track it’s basically just a cat and mouse game of who can get the best lap. And let me tell you, watching these riders try to get their fastest lap is unreal! How fast they go blows my mind how fast their bikes are not mention the jumps and rhythm sections they can put together with all the power they have really shows their skill level. Read the rest of this entry »

First off I want to start out by giving a huge thanks to all the participants, and the people who helped them get there. Being an amateur years ago I realized the sacrifices and difficulties that were made in order to attend races like these and I just wanted to say I appreciate everyone who made the trip to Daytona. Also, a huge thank you to all the participating sponsors and operational personal who helped make the event a huge success! Without your continued support, work and effort and this event would not be possible.

Its hard to believe that this was the 3rd year of the event already, seemed like just yesterday we were brainstorming and trying to make this dream of mine come true and how we could put something together that I thought would be a awesome opportunity for a young racer or amateur to have the chance to race at Daytona International Speedway. Read the rest of this entry »

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For the fifth-straight year, legendary Supercross champion Ricky Carmichael will challenge riders with his latest signature course design in the 2012 Daytona Supercross By Honda scheduled for Saturday night, March 10, the only AMA Supercross event in Florida this year.

“It’s an honor and a pleasure to design the course for Daytona, where there is so much racing history involved,” said Carmichael, who owns a record five Daytona Supercross By Honda victories. “The fans are great, and there is a great group of people working at Daytona International Speedway. I’m flattered that they continue to want me to keep coming back to design their race course. It’s a pretty cool deal.”

The Ricky Carmichael Signature Design course will draw some parallels to last year’s layout with the placement of the starting gate remaining on pit road and providing fans with a great view of the first turn. It will feature slight changes in the course’s configuration, particularly in the corners.

“It’s fun to sit down at the drawing board and to think of a design that will be fun and challenging for the riders, as well as exciting for the fans and for the people watching on television,” Carmichael said. Read the rest of this entry »

As I made my way to the west coast for the last Stop at Anaheim SX for the year I had a good trip planned. Was a short trip but packed with great meetings on some things we are working on for ‘13 as well as a few other things for some sponsors.

Thursday evening we attended the Fox international sales meeting at their Irvine office to launch the all new Instinct boot to their international team. It was similar to what we did last week for the media. To say the least the International sales guys we pumped and love the new boot now that they finally had a chance to see it in person. After the launch, Fox hosted a great party at their office for the sales guys and some people from the moto industry. The vibe was great and everyone had a fun time.

Friday was packed with meetings for some really exciting things we have in the works for 2013. I can’t give you all the details on it at this time but it is something I have been wanting to do for quite sometime now and just have been waiting for the right opportunity and timing. After the day was done we went down to a local hot spot in Newport for dinner with some great friends. It was my self and Ursula along with long time friend Jeff Emig and his wife, Pete Fox and his better half and Tom Stevens and wife to be. It was a fun time, the guys had a great time talking old times and current things going on the wives gossiped about who knows what (shocker). Read the rest of this entry »

To say the least it was a crazy week but none the less a really funny one and action packed. It all started on Tuesday in Southern Cal the Moto Mecca then ending in Nor Cal for round 4 of 2012 monster energy Supercross Championship in Oakland.

The week started out Monday flying to Orange County. During the flight I had an awesome tweet up with all of my followers. That was cool, had a lot of great questions and participation and it was great to see everyone’s outlook and opinions. I look forward to doing these a lot more and interacting with my fans. We landed in the afternoon and the weather was just starting to clear out. The plan was to head to our home base (where we normally stay) and get a quick mountain bike ride in. Next we were going meet Jeff (Emig) up in LA and head up to Buellton for the Fox ride day at Zaca Station. Fox Racing was hosting a ride day with the media to introduce the new V4 helmet and the all new Instinct boot. Fox wanted to have all the media ride in and wear the new product. I was there to give my feedback on the product and talk about my involvement with the R&D of the boot. The ride day ended up getting postponed a day because of the rain they got so it was great time to meet up with a great friend Johnny O’mara and Nicky Hayden for a couple hour bike ride. It was a great ride and we had some good talks as well during the ride. After that I headed to Monster Energy headquarters to visit all the people there, which is always fun, before meeting Jeff at Pro Circuit so we could drive together up to Zaca Station for the Fox ride day. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know what it is about Chase Field but I have always enjoyed going there and even when I was racing I always had a great time racing there. That place always produces good races and a lot of excitement and it lived up to its past this weekend. I got in on Friday afternoon in time for our Speed TV production meeting. With the racing as good as it’s been it’s our job to help put on a great show for all the fans watching at home and I really enjoy being a part of the show. After I had a great dinner with Fro and Travis (one of the guys from my video game company 2XL Games).

I really didn’t know what to expect coming in to this weekend other than just speculating off of what I had seen during round one, I just basically wanted to see what kind of reaction the guys would have for the winners of Anaheim. It’s hard for me to predict the weekend’s outcomes early in the season because I don’t feel that everyone is in their groove and are still trying to find their zone and are just too inconsistent for me to make a solid pick. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally here. Opening round of the 2012 Monster Energy Supercross Championship at Anaheim.

After all the anticipation and talk about another great season ahead of us the time was here. I got out there the Wednesday before hand to visit the people at Oakley and Fox which is always worthwhile and great to see everyone. I also to attend the pre race press conference on Thursday before Saturday night’s event.

It was a great start to the weekend, weather was awesome and it was really cool to see all the faces of the sport and the great fans as well, it seems to me that every year the paddock gets more packed with big rigs, sponsors and of course fans which always refreshing to me to see the growth.

With all that said I want to get in to the good part and the part I been waiting for the most and that is race time. As practice got going it seemed that it took some time for the track to come to life, I don’t think it was best track that Anaheim has seen in years past but was still good to see the riders out there ready to race. I watched a few practices from down on the track while I was walking around and really got to see up close how guys looked and how their bikes were working so I think that really helped me on making my predictions for the race and who I thought would be race winning contenders. Read the rest of this entry »