Thunder From Down Under - #22
Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 12:28PM Here is what the local papers are saying about tonight's SX battle in San Diego. This is a race Chad Reed has dominated in the past. The big question is can the tough Australian veteran continue his resurgence and land on the box again?
Riders fight for a hole shot during the Monster Energy Supercross at Qualcomm Stadium Saturday night. — Earnie Grafton
During his dozen seasons in Supercross, Chad Reed has raced against some of the top riders in the history of the sport.
Reed arrived from his native Australia at the end of Jeremy McGrath’s record-setting reign. The bulk of Reed’s career saw him dueling Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart for championships. At 31, Reed is still going strong against the generation featuring Ryan Villopoto and Ryan Dungey.
Reed’s 43 race wins, two championships (2004 and 2009) and unprecedented consistency rank him among the elite in his sport.
But there is one spot where Reed has been “the” rider to beat over the years. And that place is Qualcomm Stadium.
Reed returns to Qualcomm Stadium Saturday night as the only six-time champion of the annual San Diego stop on the 17-race Monster Energy Supercross tour.
Reed chalks some of his San Diego success up to coincidence. But he thinks the track layout also has something to do with his local success.
“San Diego is always the last race on the West Coast and our first race of the season in a football stadium,” Reed said earlier this week. “I have a good vibe in San Diego. I’m not a big fan of the races in baseball stadiums.
“Football stadiums have a lot of longer segments and 180-degree turns. Good things happen in San Diego. It’s not that I feel great all the time, but I always seem to be in a good position. I’ve really been consistent in the San Diego races.”
Reed’s two favorite wins at Qualcomm Stadium came in 2005 and 2011.
“I got a bad start in the 2005 race,” he recalled. “I came up through the pack and passed Carmichael late in the race. Ricky and I had quite a battle for the lead. At the finish, we were only two seconds away from lapping the third-place rider.
“I won the 2011 race in the mud and it was my first win as a team owner.”
Reed also rode his Kawasaki to a win last week in Anaheim to move to within two points of series leader Villopoto, who is seeking to win his fourth straight season championship. Reed has two wins and two third-place finishes this season and is the only rider with four top-three finishes in the season’s first five races.
Saturday’s Supercross, which is the first ever Military Appreciation Race, opens with the first heats shortly after 7 p.m.
Reed prides himself for his consistency and passion as a rider.
“Supercross is not about winning one or two weeks in a row,” he said. “The sport is a grind. People think I should be fading at my age. But the secret to my longevity is my passion for the sport. I think I show up every week ready to go. I think that passion shows up in the results.”
Not only have the faces of the competition changed a lot over the last 12 years, the tracks have changed.
“When I started in the early 2000s, the tracks were more difficult and technical,” said Reed. “It took a lot of thinking to win. Now, the tracks are all out. They’re faster and edgier. Right now, I think we’re in a transition period. Track builders and promoters are trying to find a way to challenge us in a safe way.
“I liked the early 2000s more. It took a lot more skill and preparation between the rider, the team and the bike. Guys like McGrath were extremely talented on the technical end. Races were pretty to watch because of the demands on the rider and the skills developed to meet those demands.
“Today, the sport is a little NASCARish. In the early 2000s, only two or three riders had the skills to win. Today, there are seven to eight riders who can win every race. But the skills aren’t the same.”
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