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Chad Reed Closes on Supercross Title
Category: Racing News
Date: 22 Apr 2008
Time: 20:50:37 -0400
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The dramatic 2008 AMA Supercross season edged closer to the upcoming Las
Vegas championship finale as L&M Racing’s Chad Reed finished second in the
15th round of the series at St. Louis, MO on Saturday night, April 19. Despite
suffering from a painful shoulder injury, Reed’s grit and determination took him to
his 11th podium finish of the year and gives him a 13-point lead over rival Kevin
Windham in the standings with just two rounds left to go. In essence, Reed needs
only to finish close to Windham in the final races to claim the prestigious
supercross championship for the second time.
After a frightening cartwheel in Detroit sent Reed to the hospital on April 12, he spent the week in rehabilitation to prepare for the St. Louis event. He was fourth
quickest in practice with Yamaha Factory Racing’s Josh Hill fifth quickest, though
Hill rallied to win his heat race with Reed again conservative in fifth. When the
gate dropped for the main event in front of 48,698 fans at Edward Jones Dome,
Kelly Smith grabbed the holeshot but immediately crashed out with Davi Millsaps,
handing the lead to Reed. Riding in pain, the YZ450F pilot led for three laps
before Windham got past, then wisely maintained second place for the duration of
the race. Meanwhile Hill, after starting reasonably well in sixth place, fell hard in
the whoops on lap three, getting the wind knocked out of him before remounting
his YZ to finish 16th.
Reed’s gutsy performance in St. Louis is nothing new to fans, as the event
marked the Australian’s 95th consecutive and 100th career Supercross start, a
remarkable achievement in this most demanding of sports. “I was fired up and I’m
not going to let it go,” Reed said after the race. “It doesn’t matter how much pain
I’m in – I’m going to ride as hard as I possibly can.” Yamaha Supercross team
manager Jim Perry added, “I was glad to see Chad fight through the pain to finish
second. That says a lot about his character and shows how badly he wants to win
the championship."
2008 AMA Supercross Points 4/19/08
Pos. Rider Points
1 Chad Reed – Yamaha 318
2 Kevin Windham 305
3 Davi Millsaps 244
4 Andrew Short 241
5 Josh Hill – Yamaha 196
6 Tim Ferry 190
7 Nathan Ramsey – Yamaha 173
8 David Vuillemin 146
9 Paul Carpenter 136
10 Nick Wey 131