Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 26 JUNE 30, 2015 P155 Yamaha of Troy. Moving down to the 125 class was a bit of a slap in the face to the number-two motocross racer in the world, but Reed sucked it up, won the title and earned a factory Yama- ha ride for 2003, this time in the premiere class. Chad won the season opener and seven other races that year, but lost the title by seven points to Ricky Carmi- chael. Reed won the Supercross title in 2004 and again in 2008, still on Yamaha. In 2009, he won the 250 National Motocross title on a Suzuki, along with a report- ed million-dollar bonus that he had insured with his own money. It would not be the last time that Reed would bet on himself to win. He switched to Kawasakis for an abysmal 2010, during which he broke his hand, hated the bikes and quit mid-season, claiming he had Epstein-Barr virus. Coming into 2011, the of- fers were weak, if they existed at all. Reed was at a cross- roads, a seminal moment in his career. Worth a then-reported $38 million, he and Ellie could have called it a day, packed up their growing family and headed home to Florida, or Australia (the Reed's have dual-citizenship) for a life of leisure. But they didn't. Instead, the Reeds formed TwoTwo Racing and Chad the team owner must have had one hell of a frustrat- ing conversation with Chad the racer. Reed has a reputation for being a very demanding rider; he wants his equipment to be the best and he expects it to be set up perfectly. I can hear it now, "Hey mate, did you order those 10 sets of titanium footpegs from Mitch? I need a pair for my practice bike," to which Chad the owner replied, "You mean the ones that cost $3800 a pair? I ordered them for your race bike only. Come here, I need you to sign some shirts for some fans. Hey, where did you go?" From the start, it was obvi- ous that Chad the racer was in charge, because he put together a team consisting of the best in the business: Dave Osterman as manager, Lars Lindstrom and Mike Goselaar turning wrenches and a half dozen other top shelf professionals. Now Honda- mounted after having his choice of brands, Reed and his dream team were impressive, to say the least, finishing second in the 2011 Supercross Championship. Honda must have been most impressed of all, because Reed went from buying his bikes in 2011, to full factory support in 2012 and 2013, including bring- ing the team in-house at their Torrance headquarters. But, even works parts can- not protect a rider from crash- ing and when Reed's 2012 and 2013 seasons were cut short by injuries, the rumbling started. Rumor was that Reed and his title sponsor, Discount Tire, were out at Honda for 2014, mean- ing the team would have to find somewhere else to hang their hats. In an ironic twist, in 2014 Reed found himself back in the facility formerly owned by L&M Racing, for whom he had won a Supercross Championship back in 2008, but had ended up bat- tling in court. Mike Kranyak, the "M" in L&M, might tell you that it cost him eight million to make one million, but I digress. All good things must come to an end and TwoTwo Racing was no exception, despite the best efforts of everyone involved. I don't know all of the details, but I heard that at least one major sponsor had not materialized. When a potential half million dollars from Fly 360 was left un- claimed, due to the promoter's contract with a series sponsor, the Reed's had a fiduciary duty to themselves to staunch the bleeding. They had a five year run, ran a top-shelf race team, gave their sponsors great value and Chad remains a fan favorite. He won a lot of races, while raising a family in the age of social media. There were missteps along the way and he could have done some things differently, but at the end of the day, the old adage came true again, with a twist: How do you make 36 million dollars racing? Start with 38 million, of course. CN

• Cover