“My knee is obviously sore and swollen, but I wasn’t messing with anyone when I said I was coming here because I had to. I was kind of 50/50 if I was going to race or not. It felt good but it just felt weak,” said Reed. “That’s the hard thing, it feels better, but it feels weak, because I’m just out of surgery. In the main, I got shuffled all the way to the back really fast, kind of went from a third-place guy down to about tenth. Came back for fifth so I’m stoked, honestly.”
It’s funny that even though he’s a two-time SX champion and fourth on the career SX wins list, Reed still has motivation in this (for him) lost supercross season. He explains it here: “We only lost a few points to Bam Bam [Justin Barcia], and that's the goal right now to try to be fourth in points leaving Vegas, and be the top Honda guy. I've got my crew coming down to Florida this week to do some stuff for outdoors, that's the focus right now, get my knee strong and having a shot at Hangtown.”
Reed finished fifth in his return from knee surgery.
Simon Cudby photo
Reed doesn’t have a win yet this season but has three more tries at trying to avoid the second winless supercross season of his career (in 2010, on Kawasaki, Reed only competed in six races due to injury and went winless). Just two podiums on the year stand out as a red mark on an otherwise stellar career. It’s been a battle all year for the Aussie, as when he’s been fast he’s crashed or gotten a bad start and when he hasn’t been on it, he gets out front but is powerless. Whatever could go wrong, has gone wrong for Reed (although I’m sure his rival James Stewart would like to point out that he is better than Reed at having misfortune this year. Just another battle for these two, I suppose).
At his house two weeks ago, Reed indicated to me that he’s not going out like this, that he’s still grinding away trying to figure out how to get back on top—even if it’s just for a race. A championship, well, he’ll work on that after the first step is done. For now though Reed’s in for a fight like he’s never had before and against a foe that’s undefeated.
Let’s hope that Reed can hold off Father Time off a little while longer.
