Australia’s Chad Reed is now tied on championship points with nemesis James Stewart, after the duo fought out a sensational Main Event at the second round of the 2008 AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, at Chase Field in Phoenix.
Reed once again won his heat race convincingly and a good start in the Main Event saw him round the first turn in third place.
The Yamaha star moved into second place on the opening lap before claiming the lead on lap two. An uncharacteristic mistake by Reed allowed Stewart to regain the position a few turns later. Reed then hounded the race leader for the next 10 laps before the pair caught the first of the slower riders and embarked on lapping almost half of the field.
Whilst Stewart enjoyed a clean pass through the backmarkers, Reed was cut off, giving Stewart some breathing space. Once through, Reed put his YZ450F to good use, setting his fastest lap of the race on lap 19 and looked likely to catch Stewart.
After racing neck-and-neck for the 20-lap race, Reed finished a mere second behind Stewart, with the pair finishing nearly 30 seconds in front of the third placed rider.
The event clearly confirmed what many had predicted – The 2008 season will be a Reed versus Stewart battle with the rest of the field racing for 3rd place.
“It was a typical Phoenix track; slick and dry.” said Reed. “It was a good race, and I had fun out there battling with James tonight,”
“I’m happy that I was able to keep James honest out there for the whole 20 laps of the main event. I knew he would make a comeback from his bad start last week”.
“Our speed tonight showed James that he is going to have to fight hard to retain the title this year. The fans are sure to see some great racing over the next 17 rounds.” Reed added.
Reed and his L&M/San Manual/Yamaha team will now prepare for Round 3 of the Championship which heads back to Anaheim’s Angel Stadium on Saturday 19th January.
2008 Monster Energy Drink AMA SX Series – Round 2 Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ
1 James Stewart 25
2 Chad Reed YAMAHA YZ450F 22
3 Kevin Windham 20
4 Andrew Short 18
5 Ivan Tedesco 16
6 Mike Alessi 15
7 Nathan Ramsay 14
8 Joshua Hansen 13
9 Charles Summey 12
10 Tim Ferry 11
2008 Monster Energy Drink AMA SX Series (An FIM World Championship) Standings – After Round 2 of 17
1 Chad Reed – YAMAHA YZ450F 47
James Stewart 47
3 Kevin Windham 36
4 Tim Ferry 31
5 Andrew Short 31
6 Mike Alessi 30
7 David Millsaps 21
8 Grant Langston 19
9 Nicolas Wey 17
10 David Vuillemin 17
