CARSON, Calif. (AP) – The X Games are a place for tricks, not speed.

That’s their reputation anyway.

But with the thrilling introduction of Rally Car racing last year, and this year’s new invention Moto X racing, velocity has taken its place alongside Vert.

Organizers have brought in Ricky Carmichael, the Michael Jordan of motocross, as a consultant and competitor in Moto X racing, which debuts Saturday at the Home Depot Center.

It’s a leaner, quicker, more TV-friendly version of classic supercross. Along with Carmichael’s presence it lends a new credibility to motor sports at the X Games, which motorcycle purists have knocked as a showplace for bright lights and back flips.

Five years ago, Carmichael never imagined taking part in the X Games.

“But as you can see, it’s getting more race-generated,” Carmichael said. “I think it’s a change of the tide. I’ve been in this game so long it’s exciting to have something new.”

Carmichael, a 27-year-old from Havana, Fla., has won every AMA motocross title he’s competed for since 1997 and is a five-time premier-class supercross champion.

One win away from 150 AMA victories, he’s now in semiretirement, riding in only 16 events this year. He is a fledgling NASCAR driver and has a developmental deal with Ginn Racing under Mark Martin.

Carmichael will face 11 other competitors in Saturday’s newfangled event.

Tim Reed, the X Games’ director of sports and competition, said organizers have tried to have racing and freestyle represented in every sport, just as they have done in the Winter X Games with skiing and snowboarding. “In motocross, we’ve got a lot of the freestyle,” Reed said. “It wasn’t that far of a stretch to make a reach into the racing side.”

Supercross has as many as 20 racers in a heat, and the result can be a chaotic confusion for viewers.

“A lot of times in a long event it kind of gets spread out, and it kind of gets a little monotonous and boring,” Carmichael said. “This is going to be much more aggressive.”

Moto X racing will have short, four-man heats, with six riders in the final – the four winners and two winners from “last chance” qualifying heats. A 12-lap final will determine the winner.

Carmichael said that although he had a say in how the new sport would work, he didn’t necessarily design something he could easily win.

“It makes it tougher on a guy like me who strives for the longer races,” he said. “But I’m willing to sacrifice that to get this sport to grow.”

No one represents the new emphasis on speed more than current X Games darling Travis Pastrana, who opted out of his specialty events – Moto X Freestyle and Moto X Best Trick – in favor of Rally Car racing, where he won gold last year, Car and Moto X racing, where he hopes to repeat the feat. Pastrana said he’s happy the motorized world where he grew up as a teenager is embracing the showcase that made him famous in his 20s.

“I don’t really think our motorcycle industry understands how big it is. The main hardcore race enthusiasts were like ‘Oh, X Games they’re all about the jumping,”‘ Pastrana said. “Now I’m seeing some of the motocross enthusiasts and the reporters and the magazines here.

“You already have heroes established in that sport. You have guys like Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, Kevin Windham; they have such a big following globally.”

Windham and Reed will compete alongside Carmichael and Pastrana, who after his Rally Car victory last year and his stunning stunts elsewhere will be considered a contender in any event.

But he has spent very little time on a motorcycle lately.

“I haven’t been riding hardly at all; I’m quite a bit out of shape,” he said. “The last couple days I’ve been riding I had a few good diggers and a couple front flips – unintentional front flips.”

AP-ES-08-03-07 1817EDT