450 Words: Vegas
May 5, 2008 9:40pm
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Yet throughout all of those bumps in the road he still managed to lead 162 laps, win nine main events, move into third place on the all-time supercross winner’s list behind Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael, and win his second career AMA Supercross championship. And as Steve Cox mentioned earlier in our Alpinestars Monday Conversation, this title also marks the longest gap between two championships for one guy in the history of supercross—four years.
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But I disagree. One major ingredient in the recipe of becoming a champion is staying healthy. Riders often say that races are won throughout the week; that’s when they put themselves at risk at the practice track, pounding out lap after lap in search of that extra tenth of a second. And although Reed did suffer some a couple injuries throughout the 17-round series, he gritted his teeth and did what he had to do to score points—13 more points than his nearest adversary when the fat lady sang Saturday night.
Looking back, just how important was that 12th place finish in Detroit for Reed? Well, he scored nine points for 12th; if he would’ve just took his provisional and finished 21st, he would’ve only scored one. So if things played out the same at St. Louis and Seattle, Reed would only have had a two-point lead going into the series finale, meaning a winner-take-all 20-lap throwdown for the Monster Energy AMA Supercross championship.
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Results:
1. Chad Reed (Yam)
2. Kevin Windham (Hon)
3. Andrew Short (Hon)
4. Josh Hill (Yam)
5. Davi Millsaps (Hon)
6. Nick Wey (KTM)
7. Josh Summey (Yam)
8. Travis Preston (Kaw)
9. Tim Ferry (Kaw)
10. David Vuillemin (Suz)
11. Heath Voss (Hon)
12. Paul Carpenter (Hon)
13. Jason Thomas (Hon)
14. Kelly Smith (Kaw)
15. Ryan Clark (Hon)
16. Kevin Johnson (Yam)
17. Tyler Bright (Hon)
18. Josh Hansen (Hon)
19. Robbie Reynard (Suz)
20. Eric Sorby (Hon)