Detroit Sx- Supercross Class

Speedy Reedy may have just hurt his championship cause this weekend. Let me correct that: Chad Reed significantly hurt his championship cause this weekend.

After being heralded as the most consistent rider on the track, and proving season in a season out that he just plain gets good results, he decided to change that notion mighty quickly in the day practice. Apparently he sampled the Detroit dirt, analyzing its texture and firmness, as he crashed hard in a tricky rhythm section. Coming up coughing blood and potentially hurting his shoulder (very likely from reports), he was forced to make a visit to the E.R.

The mood shifted in the pits for sure, as each rider found a new breath of wind in their sails, a jump in their step, some extra oxygen in their lungs, and some bigger cajones in their pants!

Coming into this season with a new mentality, a "fresh" Chad Reed told everyone he was going to hang it out at every event, with no regard to the championship. He was "tired" of losing, and wanted to prove he is a winner. Sadly for the fans, Lucky Number 7 had to withdraw his bid for the championship due to a bummed knee. With James Stewart out, everyone had Reed as a lock for the race to a winning tally of championship points. At the start of the season, his strong performances had people thinking perfect season from Stewart's point of withdrawal. Thankfully, some excitement unfolded, and since, the season has been up and down for Reed, keeping the fans interested.

Amidst this, Reed has stayed strong, and after a devastating race at Daytona (read here), he managed to slowly increase his points to a seemingly insurmountable lead over Kevin Windham. That flew out the window this Saturday afternoon with his extremely hard crash.

With a 27 point lead coming into the weekend, 4 races to go, and the point structure, Kevin would have to beat Reed by a minimum of 3 spots each week in order to win the championship. In fact, unless Kevin won each of those weeks, he may have needed to in the range of 4-6 spots each race with bias put on his previous results.

As the night show unfolded, uncertainty hovered in the air. Speculation about Reed's injury left people wondering if he would race. Reed, trying to show no chink in the armor, emerged on the start gate for his heat only to pull out on the first lap, obviously showing intense pain.

With the night even more uncertain after Reed's showing in the heat race, the main event approached, looming like a fog, everyone unsure of what would appear at the end. All said and done, Reed gritted what looked like a very long main event to finish 12th. He had little help from Wey and Carpenter late in the race, and his teammate Ramsay may have helped him as well by not passing him with laps waining. Even more impressive, was the fact he fell on the first lap.

Windham had another golden opportunity with Reed's early day bobble, and did manage a respectable third, but he left 5 crucial points on the table, chipping the lead down to 16. He may be wishing16 was 11 with 3 rounds left, but he is much closer now than ever before.

With all this math out of the way, a few more thoughts for next week. Reed has proven his strength in the past, but this is a rough deal with only one week to recoup. The swelling will set in, his body will most likly tire, and he will have an entire week to remember exactly his wreck.

To add to the already exciting night, some drama unfolded in the main event between Kevin Windham and Chad Reed. With Reed barely making it around the track in his hurt condition, a close moment unfolded when Chad Reed left Windham a questionable amount of room while getting lapped. If you watched the T.V. coverage, you would have seen Reed almost hold up his good buddy Millsaps as well, although he didn't seem to have any comments regarding the on track issue.

After the race, Windham went up to Reed an exchanged a few pleasantries on the matter.
While no one has a news report on exactly what was said, Windham did share what his thoughts were after the race on the web cast from supercrossonline. I have uploaded an mp3 clip from the online web cast of Windham's comments on Reed. You can get that here

I can't wait for the season to unfold!


When asked about his night, Reed has this, and much more, to say:

"I cant believe you here. How did you do this?" - Weege

"I don't know... I don't know. You know I've been here before...I knew the riders that I was competing against...there not as strong as what I am...This is the win right here, we're standing in Vegas and were champions."" - Reed
A powerful statement from a man you should be afraid of!


Chad Reed is one bad dude, and I'm not the first to say it.