Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1546134
Rumors have been circulating for over a year that Chad Reed was looking to start his own team. Truth to the rumors final- ly materialized in a press release announcing the new Yamaha L&M team (named after owners Larry Brooks and Mike Kranyak - no relation to Stefan Everts' L&M cigarette sponsor). Reed admits he had been trying for years to put together title sponsors of his own, but has now, instead, joined the L&M team as a salaried rider. Reed talks about the new team, why he admires his rival Ricky Carmichael, and clears up rumors about L&M being a cigarette sponsor. cn: How long has the new team been in the works? chadreed: It's been going for the last two years. I'd been working on trying to make something happen with the manu- facturer that I felt has a good bike, but also so I could have a group of people who I trust 100 percent and that are going to be all about me and make deci- sions and choices that I want to make. It's been long awaited and it's been one of those things where I was looking at doing it myself, trying to get title spon- sors. And then the whole Larry Brooks and L&M thing came down and it was a perfect scenario. It was really better. I didn't have to have any of the stress of it being my own team. cn: So this is really Larry Brooks' team rather than yours? chadreed: A lot of people look at it and say it's my team, but it's not my team. I'm a huge part of the team, but it's all Larry Brooks' doing. So my hat's off to him. He did a great job to turn this thing around and make it happen. cn: Is L&M Yamaha any relation to Everts' L&M sponsor? chadreed: No, It's just the name of the corporation. Everybody's thinking it's the L&M cigarette thing but they couldn't be anymore wrong! [laughs] If there's one sponsor that I would never have through- out my career it would be cigarettes. You'll never see me with a cigarette. cn: How did Nathan Ramsey come into the picture? chadreed: Nathan has a relationship with Larry (both members of the 2006 KTM Supercross team) and he's my best friend and my neighbor. We get along great and I think he's a great rider and he's a really good test guy. I think Nathan can bring a lot to the table to us as a race team. He's had a lot of experience being from everywhere from Mitch Payton's team to Factory Honda when they were first working on their 450s to KTM and now back to Yamaha. To have his knowl- edge is going to be good. So yeah, I'm super excited about that. cn: Overall, were you looking for more focus and independence with a private-team effort? chadreed: Yeah. I look at Ricky, and I think what Ricky has done at Suzuki is build a race team around him. A lot of people thought he was crazy, leaving fac- tory Honda to go to Suzuki, which, at the time, was an unproven team. And I think he made an unbelievably good choice. He had a race team around him that really, really wanted to win - a race team that was willing to do what it took. And that's a really tough combination to beat. He's got everybody around him to make things happen and that's what I want to achieve. That's what I've been working on for the last two years. cn: Is anyone else going to be joining the team? Perhaps in the Lites class? chadreed: Right now, it's just myself and Nathan on the team. I think future plans are to have a 125 guy. But right now, it's a new team and they have one focus and that's to win the '07 Supercross title. That's the priority right now. After that we'll look at what's next. Jean Turner AUGUST 16, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 14 Chad Reed: New Team for 2007