2003 Glen Helen Chevy Trucks 250cc AMA Motocross Championship (Round 1 of 11)

This is round 1 of the 2003 Chevy Trucks 250cc AMA Motocross Championship from Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, CA.
Returning stars such as 250cc rookie Chad Reed, 2000 125cc champ Travis Pastrana, Stephane Roncada, Mike LaRocco, Ernesto Fonseca, Nathan Ramsey, Ezra Lusk, 250cc Motocross sophomore Sean Hamblin, 2002 MX runner-up Tim Ferry, Nick Wey, Sebastien Tortelli, Larry Ward, David Vuillemin, Kevin Windham, Kyle Lewis, John Dowd, and 3-time defending champ Ricky Carmichael battle it out for the 2003 Chevy Trucks 250cc AMA Motocross Championship. This series features a season long battle between Honda riders Ricky Carmichael and (the rejuvenated) Kevin Windham. This is the rookie 250cc Motocross series for Chad Reed and Ernesto Fonseca, and also features the return of Kevin Windham after injuring his femur at the 2002 Atlanta Supercross. Ricky Carmichael goes for 30 consecutive 250cc moto wins and 16 straight overall wins after sweeping the 2002 Motocross Championship (25 straight moto wins if you count him losing the first 125cc moto at Steel City in 2001). This race is well known for Kevin Windham leading 250cc moto #1 before crashing into a barrier and falling back to around 16th position, but recovering for a 14th place finish; he would rebound in moto #2 for a 2nd place -- 5th overall. Team Suzuki's Travis Pastrana returns for the Motocross season, but his return is short lived as he would pull out of 250cc moto #1 after reports said he went for a double jump nobody else was doing and popped his knee out once again. After retiring from the sport at the end of 2000, 1999 250cc MX champ Greg Albertyn makes a one-off appearance on his #7 Suzuki RM250 to keep his national #7.
Enjoy.

[@nicefish10]

AWESOME!!! THanks a ton for posting this. I was at this race and was really hoping eventually someone would post this!!!!

[@MathewVsSportsMediaandGames]

You're very welcome. I got a lot more Glen Helen races where that came from -- 2000 and 2003-'09

[@mikewilliams2112]

Windham actually thought he was faster than Carmichael till everyone realized Carmichael’s under powered two stroke was much slower than four strokes. Of course, when Carmichael finally got on the four stroke he literally embarrassed everybody including Windham!

[@MathewVsSportsMediaandGames]

That is the honest-to-goodness truth there, and Carmichael talked nonstop about Kevin on that 450; you'd have a hard time convincing the average person Ricky was lying when he went 9-2 in 250cc MX 2003. The unfortunate part is that when RC jumped on a 450 for 2004 MX, that was the beginning of only beating him if he made a mistake on his own. I still consider Kevin the ONLY rider to ever beat Ricky straight up in Motocross.

[@spice3767]

Listen to the podcast with Ricky, Ping and Langston, it’s a brilliant watch. RC tested the 450 and was straight away 1 to 1.5 seconds a lap faster!

[@MathewVsSportsMediaandGames]

@@spice3767 I believe that already. David Bailey even brought up on the Southwick '05 broadcast that RC wins on sheer preparation alone; he's right about that, too.

[@spice3767]

MathewV21688 This is the link to the chat, it long but it’s brilliant, You can see why he was so good after some of the stuff he talks about. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oGPNnGNqdspgbdU

[@robotsfrom]

A similar thing happened when Stewart first went to the big bikes as well. Carmichael was on a DeCoster tuned RM450 and Stewart was battling Carmichael on a 250 two-stroke. Pretty incredible.

[@jameszbierski391]

❤️❤️👍🏻

[@MathewVsSportsMediaandGames]

Glad you liked the race.

[@JokersWild70]

I put a lot of laps in on that track from '97-'03. I left SoCal in 2004, and from what I've seen recently of the track on different bike test videos, it looks like they've brought in a bunch of sand so its not so concrete hard and blue grooved. Maybe I'll get a chance to ride it again sometime soon

[@MathewVsSportsMediaandGames]

Lucky you. My Dad went to attend the 24 Hours of Glen Helen in 2005, but I just watched the TV races through the years. I still miss this track being on the schedule.

[@billveek9518]

No one knew at the time that the 450 was so powerful, had Ricky been on a 450 two stroke he would have eaten alive Windham

[@MathewVsSportsMediaandGames]

A 450cc two-stroke??? Ricky knew how to adapt to Windham's comeback and despite Windham winning 6 motos and 2 overalls in 2003, RC was still the King at the end.