WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 52 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 24, 2015 P61
From his black-flag incident
at Anaheim 2, to his constant
struggle with suspension, or the
2009 "Chisholm Incident," the
Discount Tire/TwoTwo Motor-
sports rider and team owner
always seems to be embroiled in
some sort of controversy.
However, even at the ripe old
age of 32, the Aussie Super-
cross star still can summon
up the speed to win on any
given track, which gives him the
license to be as controversial as
he wants.
Love him or hate him, Chad
Reed keeps things interesting,
and in Atlanta, he thrilled the
51,000 fans with a flag-to-flag
win over points leader Ryan
Dungey.
Reinforcing the notion that the
start is everything in Supercross
these days, Reed backed off
early in the first turn and found
himself sneaking into the lead at
the exit of a tight left-hander. A
quick sprint put him a couple of
seconds up on the AutoTrader.
com/Toyota/JGR Yamaha duo
Briefly...
The whoops were exceptionally
tough in Atlanta, and that is probably
where Chad Reed won the race.
And after the race, Reed talked
about the whoops. "I was better in
the whoops, but I still wasn't awe-
some," said Reed. "I don't know
why. The whoops are normally my
strong point and I've been strug-
gling a little bit this year. Overall I saw
where Dunge was and I just kind of
knew the laps and knew the gap that
I needed and tried not to do anything
silly the last five laps."
If there was one thing that Chad
Reed felt turned it around for him in
Atlanta, it was that the team found
a good setting that worked for him.
"I think just a good combination of
the bike and me being able to [ride
well]," said Reed. "I feel like the
bike's been good at other races and
I haven't. Today I think we improved
the bike and also I was good, so then
it was a good combination."
AutoTrader.com/Toyota/JGR Ya-
maha's Justin Barcia was in the pits
signing autographs and gave us an
update on his injury. "I'm probably
a few weeks out still," said Barcia.
"The pelvis bone's not a fun bone to
hurt. Like I said to a few guys today, if
I broke my wrist I could tape it up and
race, but this I can't tape it up and
go. It's just painful and just crappy.
Pretty tough to deal with really. It's no
fun."
The DirtWurx crew made the whoops
section into a split lane, which re-
ally didn't work as planned, because
everyone was taking one side, so
the riders ended up with two narrow
lanes. "I think you got to make both
lanes equal," said Canard. "It was
(Left) It was the perfect storm for
the 32-year-old Chad Reed who
took advantage of a great start and
many of the top series contenders
having bad starts. (Above) Reed's
win at Atlanta was his 44
th
of his
career.
continued on next page
