hen it comes to the Daytona Supercross, Ricky Carmichael is pretty much everywhere. He designs the track, he’s the NBC Sports TV commentator, he’s the namesake host of the Ricky Carmichael Daytona Amateur Supercross, and one of his motorcycles sits in the speedway’s Motorsports Hall of Fame. All of that comes with being the all-time King of the Daytona Supercross, which he won five times in the premier class and once on a 125. While he may live on the other side of the Sunshine State, Daytona has always been Carmichael’s home race.
But Ricky’s first race as a professional at Daytona International Speedway, on March 8, 1997, was not exactly all warm and fuzzy. In fact, the 15-lap race was pretty much a crash-filled disaster that the wild-child rookie would later call “pretty stupid.” How stupid? Even our own David Pingree, then his Splitfire/Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammate, beat him!
First, some background. Carmichael, then 17, was already building an unwanted win-or-crash reputation in the early races of his career. His first SX was a cameo appearance on the #70 Kawasaki KX125 in the Los Angeles Coliseum, where he won his debut heat race in the 125 West Region (this was back when the AMA let East Region riders also ride in the West until they scored a certain amount of points). When the main event started, Carmichael decided to let everyone go off the start and just get his feet wet, ending the night 11th.
RC’s first “real” round came when the series headed east to Indianapolis. A crash landing on a hay bale left him with snapped handlebars and a disastrous 19th place for two championship points. Not exactly a great start for the Greatest of All Time, but better nights—and days—were coming.
His first two career wins under his belt, Carmichael went to the starting line at Daytona for the first 125 heat race on that March afternoon. The Gary Bailey-built track was longer and sandier back then, and the race was held during the day. The rookie topped Team Honda’s Scott Sheak and Yamaha veteran John Dowd in a race that was 25 seconds quicker than the second heat, won by Stephane Roncada over Suzuki’s Tim Ferry.
When the 15-lap main event started, the Frenchman Roncada was the leader going into the first real turn, with Pingree on his outside right and Carmichael inside to his left. But Chaparral Yamaha rider Michael Brandes was even farther inside and just behind Ricky. Brandes couldn’t make the turn and slammed into Carmichael, who then slammed into Roncada. They all went down in a heap, letting the lucky Pingree and the trailing Ferry get away with the lead.
Carmichael would take 30 seconds to get back up and going, as his bike was badly bent. John Dowd—fortunate to have gotten a lousy start, missing the pileup completely, won the race. Ferry and Pingree would round out the podium.
As for the future GOAT, he would crash again, and later run off the track and get tangled in the banners, but he never stopped trying and eventually clawed his way to sixth. And that sixth-place finish in his debut at the “World’s Center of Speed” would stand throughout the rest of his career as his worst finish at the Daytona Supercross, the race that’s now his namesake. 