Bench Racing Ammo: Reed and Anaheim

Can Reed sweep Anaheim in '08? photo: Carlos Aguirre

Anaheim, California’s Angel Stadium has been known as “The House That Jeremy Built” to the current crop of Monster Energy AMA Supercross fans. Why? Well, Jeremy McGrath was very hard to beat there, as eight of his 72 total Supercross victories came there over a time span from 1993 to ’01 (and there was no Anaheim race for a couple of years there due to stadium construction).

Ricky Carmichael also had some success inside Angel Stadium, as he too has a total of eight Anaheim first-place trophies, although none of them came at the always-hyped Anaheim opener.

Most recently, Anaheim has been good to San Manuel Yamaha’s Chad Reed. In fact, Reed got his first-ever premier class win in this stadium back in 2003, and he is now third in the Anaheim total wins category, with five. He was previously tied with Monster Energy Kawasaki’s James Stewart, who has a total of four.

Stewart does have one Anaheim record—the only rider to sweep all three Anaheim races in one season—but even that may be in jeopardy come February 2 when the Monster Energy AMA Supercross tour rolls back into Orange County, as Reed won A1 and A2 earlier this month and will be looking for the sweep, and James is out.

So if Reed is able to sweep ‘08, he’ll have a total of six Anaheim Supercross wins in his career and you can be assured there’s more to come.
 
One other cool note: Over the years, there have been seven riders who won their first SX at Anaheim:

Gaylon Mosier (1978)
Kent Howerton (1979)
Donnie Hansen (1982)
David Bailey (1983)
Johnny O'Mara (1984)
Damon Bradshaw (1990)
Chad Reed (2003)

Wins by rider in Anaheim

Jeremy McGrath: 8
Ricky Carmichael: 8*
Chad Reed: 5
James Stewart: 4

*Ricky Carmichael was the only rider to win Anaheim on three brands: Kawasaki, Honda, Suzuki