Supercross: Chad Reed's 'Last Ride' Might Not Be the End

The 38-year-old Aussie considers coming back for a few Supercross events once fans are in the stands again.

By Joey Barnes

Chad Reed isn’t quite ready to call it quits.

The 38-year-old Aussie was set for “one last ride” entering the 2020 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season, but that was before the coronavirus pandemic interrupted his plan midway through. Now, instead of making his farewell in front of fans on the back end of the schedule, Reed's final seven races are happening behind closed doors at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Sunday will mark the final round of 17 in the championship (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN; 4 p.m. on NBC), but it might not officially mark the last time Reed’s iconic No. 22 plate will be at the gate.

“For me, I never trusted myself,” said Reed, during a Zoom call on Thursday. “It was always, 'This is the end of a full-time racing career.' I no longer have that burning desire to want to work year-round to do a 17-round series anymore. But yeah, just jumping in and doing some races, whether that's here in the U.S. or Europe, Australia, whatever.

“Obviously, with the ending that we're currently experiencing, it's far from what I pitch it as my last seven races, and that doesn't need to be a negative. It's not that I'm talking like these races suck or anything like that, it's just a very different feeling. I decided to race this year fully based on the fact that I wanted to kind of say my goodbyes and enjoy multiple stadiums around the country, and I didn't get that opportunity. We're really six stadiums short of what I originally had planned out to do.”

After his professional career began in 1998, Reed came to the United States in 2002 and has become one of the most decorated—and notoriously gritty—riders in the history of the sport, amassing 44 premier class wins (fourth all-time), 132 podiums (most all-time), 264 starts (most all-time) and he is a two-time Monster Energy Supercross champion (2004, 2008). He is also the only international rider to win titles in both 450cc and 250cc.

Over the past couple of years, though, he has caught the four-wheel bug and run events in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, even winning at the World Finals in Jerez, Spain, last year. Although his eyes have moved toward sports cars, there is still a desire to not let Sunday be the final chapter of his storied Supercross career.

“As I sit here today and I'm in shape and I'm racing, I absolutely want to come back and race,” said Reed. “As I start to phase out and start looking at car data and racing four wheels and all these kinds of things, do I have the motivation to want to get back into shape and the work that it takes to qualify and race these races? That's the unknown.

“Sitting here today, emotionally, physically, I don't want this to be the end right now. I really want to race some races next year. I think that'd be really fun to experience fans again. What I get from racing in front of fans and when they turn the lights off, do opening ceremonies, the fireworks, the anthem, all those things, that's what I want to experience one last time.”

Anaheim, Daytona and Indianapolis were among the list of potential venues he mentioned returning to. Looking beyond his riding career, Reed sees the appeal of emulating Roger De Coster, who earned five motocross championships in the 1970s before retiring and finding a prominent second career running programs for Honda, Husqvarna, KTM and Suzuki.

“I mean, I love it,” said Reed. “I feel like a lot of people retire—there's a few reasons—a lot of people just don't want to travel anymore. It's a gnarly schedule. The schedule doesn't scare me. I'm probably most fearful of not being able to pack my bag and get on a plane 17 times a year. I actually have more fear from that than anything. I love it. I would love the position (of a) Roger De Coster. If I was to put effort and to go and do something, you'd want to be Roger, because it's so hard being and seeing what I've seen and knowing what I know and running my own race team—seeing what makes a team successful and what makes a team fail.

“I think that you have to be in the position of a Roger to be the guy that if you make bad choices, you fail, and then if you make good choices, you win. Anything in between that line is probably where I struggle the most with every individual in our sport, so I wouldn't want to be that person. But I would have a huge desire to take over a factory race team at the highest level.”

That notion isn’t so farfetched, considering Reed is familiar with being in a team ownership role and has represented six different manufacturers throughout his career. Although there is one that he is partial to, it all comes down to whether the manufacturer is willing to provide the resources it takes to win.

“Give you the resources and give you the reins to be successful,” stated Reed. “Don't give you just enough reins to hang yourself, give you enough to go out and get the job done. It's always hard to talk about this while you're still racing, but I mean, never really shied away, but I think that Yamaha probably needs my help the most. It's near and dear to my heart. I have a lot of successful years. The years that you look back on and think, 'Man, they were the cool years. They were fun,' I was riding blue. So, to see them at the level that they're at now is less than the highest level, in my opinion.

 

“Yeah, I’m retiring, but I didn’t have the thought process of a retiring athlete, yet. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”

“Yeah, a team like that would be fun, but we're saying that you want to be involved in a company that's thriving to build rad motorcycles and people that are producing motorcycles at near the weight limit and pushing that envelope like KTM, Husky [Husqvarna] are. Roger's got himself a fun project.”

While the idea of Reed in that type of role is fascinating, there is no timeline for when that might come to be.

"I really haven't given it any thought,” said Reed. “There's so many things, it still hasn't sunk in if I'm honest. It hasn't. Obviously, doing these kinds of things and the opening ceremonies at the beginning of the season, they hit home. But right now, I still feel very amongst the racing and training and riding, and we've still got one to go. I can't wait to get home and ride my two-stroke.

“Yeah, I'm retiring, but I don't have the thought process of a retiring athlete, yet. I don't know if that's good or bad.”