Australia’s Chad Reed has become only the second rider in the history of the AMA Supercross series to take all three Anaheim race wins in a season after his emphatic victory at the fifth round of the 2008 Monster Energy® Drink AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, at Angel Stadium tonight.
It was a perfect night for the 25 year old Australian who, in front of a record crowd of 43,785, won his heat race, recorded the fastest lap time for the number one gate pick, and then led the 20 lap Main Event from start to finish.
Winning by a comfortable 5 seconds, Reed acknowledged his fitness was at its peak and that he had ridden conservatively in comparison to previous championship rounds this year.
“After last weekend, I set some goals for myself, and winning this race was definitely one of them,” said Reed.
“I knew that if I won the holeshot then I’d be able to get the job done so we focused on starts during our testing this week and it paid off. I rode at a steady pace and still had a lot left in the tank after the race. “
“There were two big positives from the weekend, not only did we win but we’ve also learnt a massive amount about the Yamaha YZ 450F. This has been a really satisfying event,” Reed added.
Reed has won four out the five rounds so far and now sits 26 points clear of second placed Kevin Windham. With no time to rest the Championship leader will now head home to prepare for Round 6 of series at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium on Saturday 9th February.
In the smaller capacity Supercross Lites category Jason Lawrence (Yamaha) made it an Open-Lites double for the tuning fork brand while Austin Stroupe and Brett Metcalfe upheld Kawasaki honour by stepping onto the podium alongside race winner Lawrence. Billy Laninovich was the first KTM home in fourth ahead of Kyle Cunningham on the first Honda to cross the line. Thomas Hahn brought his Kawasaki home sixth ahead of Justin Brayton (KTM), Daniel Reardon (Honda), Rob Kiniry (Honda) and Gavin Gracyk rounded out the top ten.
Series lead Ryan Dungey suffered his worst results of the season with an 11th place finish allowing race winner Jason Lawrence to close to within 8 points of Dungey. Lawrence also managed to push Dan Reardon out of second overall in the standings who with Brett Metcalfe makes it an Aussie 3-4 in the series standings.
2008 Monster Energy Drink AMA SX Series – Round 5 Angel Stadium, Anaheim, CA
1 Chad Reed 25
2 Davi Millsaps 22
3 Tim Ferry 20
4 Kevin Windham 18
5 Andrew Short 16
6 Mike Alessi 15
7 Nathan Ramsay 14
8 Nick Wey 13
9 Troy Adams 12
10 Manual Gomez 11
2008 Monster Energy Drink AMA SX Series (An FIM World Championship) Standings – After Round 5 of 17
1 Chad Reed 122
2 Kevin Windham 96
3 Tim Ferry 77
4 Mike Alessi 69
5 Andrew Short 67
6 Davi Millsaps 65
7 Nathan Ramsay 57
8 Ivan Tedesco 53
9 Nick Wey 53
10 Josh Hill 49
SX Lites Points
1 Dungey 96
2 Lawrence 88
3 Reardon 80
4 Metcalfe 78
5 Stroupe 74
6 Hahn 70
7 Brayton 69
8 Hepler 59
9 Gracyk 53
10 Cunningham 47
