The Orlando Supercross was much bigger than a race. It was a lifetime of memories wrapped up in one evening that just happened to include a race.
Ricky Carmichael, known clearly as the Greatest Of All-Time, selected Orlando as his last race before retiring from supercross, and the story unfolded perfectly from there. RC and his wife Ursula were expecting twins, and amazingly they were born just a day before the event, as Ricky rushed from press duties at the track back home in time to see his first children born. Then he flew back to the track in a helicopter Saturday morning for the track walk and practice—at which point he was mobbed by everyone in the industry offering congrats on the family and good byes as a racer.

A racer Carmichael still was, but the question came down to how well he could focus through everything swirling around him. No one had ever done it better than him, but still, these were different circumstances—obviously there had been little rest for Ricky over the days leading to this event, and there were sure to be plenty of emotions running throughout the night. But this was still a race, and what’s more a race in his homestate of Florida. You knew even with everything else going on that he still wanted to win.

After a lavish, massive opening ceremony in celebration of RC’s amazing career, it was time to get down to business. Ricky was right in the hunt with James Stewart on practice times so you knew he had the ability to bring it once the gate dropped in the races. In his heat race, he started behind his old rival Chad Reed and had to make a pass. Ricky harbors no love for Reed after their run ins in supercross over the years, and Ricky wanted to give him something to remember him by. He didn’t just pass Reed, he made sure to take him to the blocks and shut him off just so Reed would remember, once and for all, who was the Greatest Of All-Time (even heading into retirement, Ricky plays mind games).

Then the main event came. Reed grabbed the early lead, but soon Stewart and Carmichael were all over him. Reed missed a gear approaching a triple and could only double, and Carmichael and Stewart pounced on it to take the top two spots. What followed was a classic cut right from a Hollywood script, as the two riders who were basically born and raised to race each other did it one more time, pushing the pace to insane levels while riding fair and clean. The Orlando fans got to see the GOAT push one more time, too. Stewart controlled the race at the halfway mark, but a few laps later Carmichael dug deep for one last shot at the win. He got right up next to Stewart at one point—even looking at him eye to eye over the triple—but just couldn’t quite make the pass. Stewart has a slight edge in the whoops, and it was enough to squirt away and hold the position.

Ricky dug deep again and stayed on Stewart’s rear wheel hoping for a mistake, but James, who had learned so much racing Carmichael over the last few years, didn’t put a wheel wrong. He hung on to win by a few bike lengths, in an amazing battle that no one will ever forget.
If anyone at the Citrus Bowl that night didn’t follow Carmichael’s career, or didn’t know why he was the GOAT, the race pretty much proved it. He finally can be beaten, but only by the most talented rider to ever swing a leg over a bike in his prime, pushing as hard as he possibly can, and even then Carmichael would not relent, giving it everything he had to win a race that didn’t really matter. But even as a father, even now retiring to become a stock car driver, he is a supercross racer through and through, and when he races, he races to win.

It was an emotional night for one other rider, too. Branden Jesseman was once right there with Stewart on the next big things list, winning the 2003 East Region Supercross Title. But everything went wrong for Brando, who got married and divorced, lost his factory ride and incurred injury after injury after injury. Basically given up for dead, he found a spot with the Motoworldracing.com Yamaha team in the hopes of finding that old spark. Jesseman isn’t the rider he was four years ago, but for one night, he got back on top.

A massive pileup on the first lap of the Lites main put Jesseman on the ground along with several others. The race was red flagged, and Jesseman rolled to the starting line bloody and beaten. After that, though, it all came together, as Branden passed Billy Laninovich for the lead and found some of his old mojo at the front of the pack. It was full charge after that, as he held off Mike Alessi down the stretch to win the race—his first victory in four years. More importantly, it was a personal victory for Jesseman, who has been down a bad road and has been trying to get back to the top.
For most people involved, Orlando was a lot bigger than just a supercross race.