Cycle News

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 54 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 31, 2017 P57 and man, it's gross. It's sad. I'm more worried for Kenny's health than this guy [Dungey] being crowned." Chad Reed expressed a lot of frus- tration just like Tomac did following the race in Arizona. He obviously feels that he should've been up front in the first three rounds, but didn't have a chance. "What we do dur- ing the week is where it all happens, so in all honesty, you're happy to be here, but I'm frustrated, you know?" Reed said. "In May, I knew what needed changing, and we just sat on our hands the whole off-season. Finally, when you suck at the first race, they allow you to do the things you feel like you need to do. Finally, now, I can ride the dirt bike the way I feel like I need to. We're within the window now, and now we just need to keep chipping away and try to get better." Reed was then asked if he expects this from himself every week- end. "Honestly, I do," Reed said. "I know everybody wants to high-five me like this is my last time, but I don't work hard and put myself on the line to just come out here and make up the numbers, and that's how I felt at the first three. I kind of echo what Eli just said. You work too hard. We ex- pect to be here. Sometimes you kind of know what you need to do and you can feel it, and sometimes you just can't make it happen. Sometimes it needs to get worse before it gets bet- ter. That's what these last three races have been. It's just been a disaster. I think last week I was decent, but my starts, even tonight to be honest with you, I think I can throw down with Eli if I get a good start. But yeah, I need to work on that." Sticking to this subject, we asked Chad Reed if he was still hoping to sign a contract for another year so that he might take down Mike LaRoc- co's record of total premiere-class SX main events starts. "I feel better about it this weekend," Reed said. "It was frustrating the first three, and of course the record would be nice, but I think that if I'm to go for records, the win record is what means the most. I tick a lot of boxes with a win. Being the oldest guy to win a race I think would be pretty cool, and of course if I keep riding the way I can, I think LaRocco's record falls. I think that I showed this weekend that I'm out here for the right reasons, and I think Yamaha's better with me there, and my input in helping my teammate out and heading him in a better direction. So I hope to continue that relation- ship there, but we'll see what hap- pens." After hearing Reed's comments, Cooper Webb was asked about whether or not Reed has done a lot to help him so far in his young 450cc career. "No. No, not at all," Webb said. "I mean, if I have a question for him, he'll answer it, but that's about it. And I understand it. He wants to win, and to win he has to beat every- one else including me. It would be one thing if he was not competitive at all, but as you saw tonight, he is. So, no, it hasn't quite been that way." But what about with motorcycle settings? "No, not really," Webb said. "Right now, we're running completely dif- ferent stuff. It hasn't worked out quite like a lot of people thought, but it's not good or bad. We're both differ- ent riders, and eventually—I mean, he can't go forever. [Laughs] You know, I say that, but he could be battling like he was tonight for the next three years. I think eventually he does want to play that role of being a mentor. But he's a competitor right now." Speaking of Cooper Webb, in his heat race, while running fourth, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Ja- son Anderson was chasing him on the last lap when, in the track's sand section, Anderson appeared to dive- bomb Webb, taking them both out and handing the final transfer spot to Josh Grant. It seemed like an odd move from someone who was just DQ'd one week ago after getting tak- en out by Vince Friese, then losing his temper and smacking Friese in the helmet on his way back to the pits. Webb was asked what that crash in the sand section was all about. "Your guess is as good as mine," Webb said to the media. "I don't know. It was a bit of a bonehead move, I felt like. I'm all for aggressive racing and stuff like that, but I felt like there was definitely no good coming out of that. We both went down, and that's ex- actly what was going to happen the whole time. I don't know what was going through his head; I mean, I know it was a transfer spot, but in my opinion he wasn't even close. To me, at the end, it was like he wasn't even worried about the corner." Cooper Webb and Weston Peick were both penalized the Monday fol- lowing Anaheim II. They were both docked points for jumping the final double out of the rhythm section where Ken Roczen was down. Webb was docked five points, while Peick— who finished right behind him—was docked four points. cont. on next page

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