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Team Makita Suzuki's Ricky Carmichael capped one of the most exciting Supercross seasons in recent history by winning finishing in second place at the final round in Las Vegas, thereby securing the 14th AMA title of his career. The championship was bittersweet to most fans, as it was accompanied by Carmichael's announcement that he will run a limited schedule next year. Yes, folks, Carmichael is going on the partial retirement plan that is all the rage with top riders these days.

Nevertheless, there was still time to soak up the ambiance of Sin City and Carmichael's latest Supercross championship. It was an eventful season marked by lots of drama, both on the track and off, and will be remembered as the year that James Stewart finally came into his own on the big bikes, as well as the controversy that derisively became known as "fuel-gate" on Internet message boards. But more importantly, it will be remembered as another classic Carmichael championship, one in which the 26-year-old Florida native jumped out to an early series lead, and then rode conservatively for the remaining rounds to secure the title. While this conservative riding method causes some fans to complain about a lack of battles on the track, it is an M.O. that has worked well for Carmichael for the last three seasons. And in the end, no one will remember how he won his championships, they'll just remember that he won.

This year, things weren't easy on Carmichael. Coming into Las Vegas, a total of just 5 points separated Carmichael, Stewart, and Chad Reed of Team Yamaha. Any one of those three could have come out of Vegas as the new champion based on different scenarios. For Stewart, it would have meant winning the race and hoping Carmichael and Reed finished third or worse. For Carmichael it meant finishing at least in second place. And for Reed, it meant having to win, and hoping that both Carmichael and Stewart finished fourth or worse. Those were all very plausible scenarios, so the crowd was on edge the whole time.

Stewart jumped out to the early lead with the holeshot, and then just kept on going. He soon checked out, which left the only real drama behind him with Carmichael and Reed. Stewart fans were no doubt hoping that Carmichael and Reed would battle so hard that they would end up taking each other out, thereby opening the door for Stewart's championship. While things did get pretty close in the fight for second place, and while the riders were clearly pushing themselves to the limit, everyone managed to stay up on two wheels. When Carmichael crossed the finish line in second place, the AMA SX championship was his.

Through the first few rounds of the season, it appeared as though Carmichael might run away with the championship. Stewart won the opening race at Anaheim I, but then Carmichael came back and strung together two consecutive victories while Stewart finished in third place two times. Meanwhile, Reed was quietly putting together some solid rides of his own, taking second place four times in the first five races. However, most of the attention was squarely focused on Stewart and Carmichael, so Reed's accomplishments were going unnoticed.

That is, until Round 7 in St. Louis, where things started to unravel for Carmichael and Suzuki. Carmichael experienced an uncharacteristic mechanical failure in St. Louis that forced him to pull off the track in the Main Event after having put just one lap in the books. This meant that Carmichael would finish with a single point, and gave both Stewart and Reed golden opportunities to make up 24 points (since the winner gets 25 points) in the championship standings. Stewart soon had troubles of his own, and ended up in 17th place for the evening, which netted the young Kawasaki rider a mere four points. Reed wasted no time in capitalizing on his competitors' bad luck. The 2004 Supercross champion took home the win, and in the process put himself right back into the thick of things. Reed turned what had been a 15-point deficit into a 9-point lead just like that, and the series suddenly had a whole new look to it.

Then, news of Team Suzuki's alleged use of out-of-spec fuel surfaced, and the points landscape changed yet again. In keeping with the severity of penalties assessed in past years, AMA Supercross series manager Steve Whitelock docked Carmichael 25 points. This loss, coupled with the 1-point effort in St. Louis, effectively eliminated Carmichael from the title hunt. However, Suzuki appealed the decision, and the AMA, in conjunction with the FIM, reversed the ruling and gave Carmichael his points back. Instead, Team Suzuki was fined $25,000, and the sanctioning bodies promised they would be reviewing the way fuel samples are collected and tested.

Reed and Stewart supporters naturally cried foul at this reversal, pointing out that Carmichael forced the AMA's hand by essentially threatening to stop racing the series if he didn't get his points back. What happened was that during a subsequent press conference, Carmichael (not so subtly) hinted that since there wasn't any chance of him surmounting such a great points deficit with just half of the series remaining, that there would be no reason for him to continue racing Supercross and risk injury. He would rather start preparing for the outdoor series if the penalty were to stand.

However, as things usually do in professional sports, the controversy blew over after a couple of weeks, and people stopped mentioning it as a turning point in the series. Most everyone turned their attention back to racing, and watched Stewart go on an extended hot streak. Stewart, whom many had started to count out of the series, won five of the last six races to make it close and finish just two points behind Carmichael in the overall standings. In fact, Stewart's late-season charge was enough to secure the World Supercross GP championship. In case you're not familiar with the structure of AMA Supercross these days, there's a new series-within-a-series format, with two titles on the line during the season instead of just one. The AMA championship remains the more prestigious of the two, but that could change in the years to come.

No matter who your favorite rider is, I think it's safe to say that any true fan of Supercross racing had to be satisfied with the way the 2006 series played out. There have been many past series where the championship has effectively been determined well in advance of the final round. But this time, there were three deserving competitors poised to win it all in Vegas. It doesn't get much better than that!