Kawasaki/Racer X Race Report

October 12, 2007, 11:13pm

Chad Reed swept night one.

The opening night of the 2007 Rockstar Energy Drink U.S. Open of Supercross was dominated by blue, as Yamaha riders finished 1-2 with L&M Racing’s Chad Reed taking the win over newly crowned AMA Motocross champion Grant Langston. Reed also swept all three Toyota Trifecta events (winning the Superpole, pulling the Progressive Holeshot and winning the main event) pocketing $50,000 for tonight’s efforts. If Reed is able to sweep all three events again tomorrow night, he’ll go home $250,000 richer.

“I felt good tonight,” said a happy Reed on the podium. “It was all about the holeshot.”

After not getting a great start in his heat race, Reed bounced back in the main event, coming out of the first turn with the lead. “I was in between Grant and Mike, and I’ve been hearing a lot about Mike’s starts, but I wasn’t going to give it to him,” said Reed. “I got around the first turn clean and just went through the motions after that.”

Langston made it a 1-2 Yamaha punch.

Yamaha’s Grant Langston came out of the first turn in second, followed by Makita Suzuki’s Mike Alessi, Monster Kawasaki’s Tim Ferry and Honda’s Andrew Short. Alessi faltered on lap one dropping two positions, and Andrew Short was able to get around Ferry for third.

Meanwhile, out front Reed maintained about a three-second cushion over Langston, who was slowly getting reeled in my Short. Around lap 14 the leaders starting hitting lappers, but that didn’t change the running order, and the top six finishers were all aboard 450cc bikes. The top “Lites” rider was Australian Dan Reardon, who was making his American debut for the SoBe No Fear/Samsung Mobile Honda team, finishing seventh. MDK KTM’s Justin Brayton finished eighth in his team debut, followed by Rockstar Suzuki’s Michael Byrne and SoBe No Fear/Samsung’s Jake Weimer.

Race Results
1. Chad Reed (Yam)
2. Grant Langston (Yam)
3. Andrew Short (Hon)
4. Tim Ferry (Kaw)
5. Mike Alessi (Suz)
6. Josh Demuth (Hon)
7. Daniel Reardon (Hon)
8. Justin Brayton (KTM)
9. Michael Byrne (Suz)
10. Jake Weimer (Hon)
11. Jason Thomas (Hon)
12. Billy Laninovich (KTM)
13. Bryan Johnson (Hon)
14. Heath Voss (Hon)

Dan Reardon was the top Lites rider, finishing seventh.