Throwback Thursday: Anaheim 1 1999 – Ricky Carmichael’s first 250 supercross!

The opening round at Anaheim in 1999 was one of the of the most stacked fields in supercross history with factory team at the time having no budget issues and running three riders under their awning and in Hondas case four!

The first round of the AMA supercross series at Anaheim had the much hyped Ricky Carmichael making his debut on a 250 Kawasaki after dominating the 125 class the season before on his 125 Pro-Circuit Kawasaki. Also making his 250 debut was the highly talented but very fragile Robbie Reynard who had signed for team Suzuki. 1998 250 World champion Sebastien Tortelli was making his debut for Honda who also housed fellow Frenchman Mickael Pichon plus Americans Ezra Lusk and Kevin Windham. Even future US star David Vuillemin was in the field doing some warm-up races before his first and only GP season on a 250!

Jeremy McGrath was of course the man to beat on the Yamaha and was still very much in the prime of his career but he schocked the industry at his decision to race supercross only in 1999 – the first rider to do so. It would set a trend that still happens to this day as riders get older and perhaps set the precedent of supercross being more important than motocross in the USA.

But 1999 will always go down as one of the most stacked fields in history with almost the entire field on factory equipment and a superb CV behind every one of them!