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Reed Wins Supercross Season Opener
Category: Racing News
Date: 11 Jan 2008
Time: 17:51:59 -0500Comments
L&M Racing’s Chad Reed stormed his Yamaha YZ450F to a decisive win in the first round of the 2008 AMA Supercross Series in Anaheim, Calif. on Saturday night, Jan. 5. Adding to the blue-and-white firepower at the muddy event was 2007 AMA Motocross champion Grant Langston, who finished a solid fourth after putting his Yamaha Factory Racing YZ450F into the lead early in the race. In the Lites division, Yamaha of Troy’s Jason Lawrence finished a close second on his YZ250F after leading several exciting laps. With the Angel Stadium track treacherous due to recent heavy rains, timed practice was reduced to a single session per rider and the heat races were crash filled. Nevertheless in the Lites class, Lawrence turned in a stunning lap time of 57.91 sec. during qualifying – the fastest time among all 250 and 450 riders. In the 15-lap Lites final Lawrence, along with fellow YZ250F pilots Matt Lemoine and Zach Osborne, started only in the top 10. But Lawrence blitzed through the pack and took the lead on lap five, looking like a certain winner until he was blocked at a triple jump and eventual winner Ryan Dungey flew past. Two laps later Lawrence fell at low speed, and although he quickly remounted there wasn’t enough time left to overtake Dungey. In the 20-lap Supercross main event Langston got the holeshot with Reed in hot pursuit and key rival James Stewart down on the ground in the first turn. Reed quickly passed Langston for the lead with a burst of speed through a whoops section that had the crowd gasping, then stalled his bike on lap two and dropped to fourth. But Reed quickly regrouped, roaring back into the lead on lap five and pulling away to a big 21-second win over Stewart, who had worked up to second. Langston finished fourth behind Tim Ferry. “It was nice to see three different Yamaha teams leading at Anaheim including L&M Racing, Yamaha of Troy and our Factory Racing team,” said team manager Jim Perry. “It’s good to see the Yamaha family showing good results at the beginning of the year.”