er falling last
week in Dallas on the last
lap while runing second,
Team Yamaha's Chad Reed left
Texas a disappointed man, to say
the least. At the Pontiac Silverdome,
Reed was looking for redemption - and
he found it.
Reed emerged victorious in
Michigan after an exciting race that
had the 51,142 in attendance shaking
their heads in awe after all was said and
done. The win was Reed's fourth of the 2005 THQ
AMA Supercross Series and the third straight at the
Silverdome. It also keeps him in the title hunt, but he
is still 28 points behind series leader Ricky Carmichael,
who finished second, with just three races left.
"It's nice to be back up here," Reed said. '" feel like
last weekend I was riding really well but just made a
lot of small mistakes at the beginning of the race that
cost me a challenge toward the end. I just kind of
wanted to change that this weekend."
As for Carmichael, he was a little disappointed
with his result - he knows he can do better. It has
been six weeks since the Makita Suzuki rider last
stood on the top step of the podium, in Atlanta.
"I'm a better rider than I was tonight," Carmichael
said. "I should have known better than to do the
A
things that I did tonight. But I give it up to Chad; he
was the better rider [tonight)."
In Saturday afternoon practice, Reed posted the
fastest lap time, ahead of second qUickest Carmichael.
In his heat race, however, he narrowly lost to a rejuvenated Amsoil/Chaparral/Honda rider Kevin
Windham. But in the main, Reed was all business and
rode the wheels off his Darrin Sorrenson-tuned
Y:Z250. like a true champion, he was happy to see
Windham back up to speed.
"This was a good track for him [Windham)," Reed
said. "He rode awesome in the heat race, and it's
good to have him up here and challenging."
Fresh off his heat-race victory, Windham took the
holeshot in the main. From there he began to check
out. It was like the Windham of old: smooth, calculated and just plain fast. Windham could not have been
happier with his newfound speed.
"I felt like a whole different rider," Windham said.
"It feels good to show these guys the rear end of the
Honda for a change. It just feels good to be competitive tonight."
In the opening laps, Team Yamaha's Heath Voss,
Carmichael, Team Kawasaki's James Stewart, and
Reed all followed Windham. As the group circulated
the course together, Stewart, like he always does,
began to make a charge toward the front, but while
attempting a move on Carmichael, the 19-year-old
Kawasaki rider lost his front end in a turn. And Reed
had a bird's-eye view.
