Intensity is key to wins

A serious knee injury in 2003 turned around Ricky Carmichael's career.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ricky Carmichael figures his biggest asset in racing Supercross and Motocross is his intensity.
"Some people hate losing," Carmichael says. "I just won't accept it."
That brash attitude, combined with the success attained by the man many consider the greatest rider of all time, didn't always sit well with competitors and fans.
Similar to four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon, Carmichael was the guy people loved rooting against, and he often was the target of cascading boos from the big crowds that turn out in arenas across the United States and Canada for the THQ World Supercross GP/THQ AMA Supercross Series.
A serious knee injury turned things around for Carmichael.
Torn ACL
Surgery in December 2003 for a torn ACL put Carmichael on the shelf for the indoor Supercross season in 2004 and gave him time to reflect on where he was in his career.
"I thought a lot about what I had accomplished and what people thought about me and what I owed to the sport and the fans," Carmichael said. "I've been around a while now, but there are still some things I want to accomplish. I just realized that there were some things I had to change."
It wasn't the first time he had changed his approach to the sport.
Carmichael was an immediate success in the AMA 125cc class in both Motocross and Supercross. He won the championship in both classes in 1999, but struggled that year and the next when he moved up to the more powerful 250cc bikes.
That was when his mother, Jeannie, strongly suggested Ricky get a physical trainer and get into real racing shape.
"I didn't want to see him wasting the talent he obviously had," Jeannie Carmichael said. "He needed to be more focused and really want to succeed. He did what he had to do."
Indeed he did.
Dominated circuit
Since 2001, Carmichael, who moved from Kawasaki to Honda in 2002, has won every 250cc Motocross and Supercross championship except for last year, when he was off the track rehabilitating his knee.
The big question was if, at 34, Carmichael would come back from the injury and still be the guy to beat.
It didn't take long to get an answer.
Carmichael signed with Makita Team Suzuki Racing for the 2005 Supercross season during his hiatus, but he gave Honda a going-away present before he left the team. He came back for the start of the 2004 outdoor Motocross season and went 24-0 -- the second time he has gone unbeaten in the series. This time, he led 370 of 382 laps on the way to his fifth consecutive 250cc Motocross title.
"I was determined from the beginning," Carmichael said. "When I was hurt, I thought I really needed a break. But, while I was out, I realized how much I love what I do and how bad I wanted to be out there racing. I put my heart to it."
Leading once again
He then joined Suzuki and hardly missed a beat, dominating the indoor Supercross series. He has won seven of the 11 races so far and holds a 31-point lead over runner-up Chad Reed, a three-time winner and Carmichael's toughest competitor.
Some people were surprised when Carmichael signed with Suzuki, which had not won a Supercross championship since 1983.
"I really appreciated that they were so interested in me when I was still hurt," Carmichael explained. "It's not like they came to talk to me after I completed the perfect season. They showed a lot of interest in me before I rode the first Motocross race of the 2004 season. That means a lot to me."
Still, he wasn't expecting instant success.
"I'm really surprised," Carmichael said. "Sometimes, it takes a while to put things together on a new team. But I'm really happy with the team and the way this year has gone."
So is Roger DeCoster, the team manager and one of the all-time best in bike racing.
"We knew the kind of ability and work ethic that Ricky could bring to our team," DeCoster said. "He's teaching our young drivers a lot just by the way he approaches his job and by his intensity."
Keeps up intensity
And Carmichael is determined to keep that intensity all the way to the finish of this season. On the way to winning the Supercross title in 2003, Carmichael failed to win in his last six starts. That was embarrassing to the winningest rider in AMA Motocross/Supercross history.
"It would be awesome to win another championship," Carmichael said. "It's something that would make everything I sacrificed worthwhile. But I am determined not to let what happened two years ago happen again.
"I'll only be satisfied if I know that I didn't leave anything on the table."