2002 proved to be a stunner of a year for Ricky Carmichael. First, he’d left Factory Kawasaki (after winning both the 250 Supercross title and the 250 Outdoors) for what fans felt was a money grab for Honda, who was still trying to fill the void left when Jeremy McGrath departed for Yamaha. RC claimed that Honda had a better machine, though that was up for conjecture since they’d dropped the engine that proved to be hugely successful for a new case reed design that clearly was not the powerhouse of the late 90s engine. Ricky started the Supercross season with a big crash at round one and no points. He righted the ship winning 11 Supercross events and the title. Remember, the dynamics of the sport were changing with Yamaha introducing powerful 4-stroke machines that ultimately would push the 2-stroke out of the picture. But when RC entered the outdoors he took ‘the last new 2-stroke that Honda ever built’ and won 24 straight races for a perfect season. Ricky was fit, he was a bull dog and he hated to lose.
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