On Saturday May 4, 2002, recently christened AMA 125cc East Region Supercross Champion Chad Reed raced in Las Vegas, Nevada’s, Sam Boyd Silver Bowl for the first time. And in the years to come, the NCAA College Football stadium would be, for the most part, kind to the man. The Australian won main events at the traditional season-ending event in 2003, 2005, 2008, and 2011, as well as clinching his two AMA Supercross Championships at the place in both 2004 and 2008. But, Reed, for reasons he’ll explain, has never really had a strong showing at the one-off, three moto Monster Energy Cup. In fact, he’s only finished in the top-five overall on one occasion (2012). But that was then and this is now and Chad Reed is ready to race next Saturday night in the Big Neon Glitter.
Racer X: Chad, what’s going on?
Chad Reed: I just left the test track. We’ve just been testing away all week. I got out here to California on Tuesday and we started testing on Wednesday, so I’ve been here Wednesday, Thursday, Friday ... I was going to go home on Sunday, but that hurricane is going on back home in Florida so I’m just going to stay out here until Monster Cup.
The Monster Cup will be your first race back since you did the two MXGP World Championship events back in June, correct?
Yeah, I didn’t really think about that but it’s been a long time since I actually raced. It doesn’t feel like that long ago. I enjoyed my time off since then and just regrouped and got a full head of steam again and have been working away and training and getting ready. I’m excited. I’m really excited to go racing again.
I was going to ask you about that. You’ve been doing all of this for a long time now. You’ve just had a bit of a break, this race over in Las Vegas is a supercross, and you really do sound pumped to go racing again.
Exactly. I mean the last two races I did were motocross races. I like motocross, don’t get me wrong, but I have a supercross-only contract, so therefore that’s what I get paid to do. You have to live up to your end of the bargain on some contracts, so I did that and had a fun time in Europe. You know, it kind of pissed some people off that I didn’t do the USGPs. Yamaha wasn’t too pumped with me. But you have to make the decision on what’s best for you, and if you’ve been doing this long enough, you know what you’re ready for and what you’re not ready for. You want to look at the goal and the goal is to be the best supercross rider, not to waste my time getting ready for motocross. Because whether I’m getting ready for two GPs or 18 GPs, it takes the same amount of effort. I just wasn’t really prepared at the time to change up my program and get ready for motocross when I was already really focused on supercross. I feel good about the decisions I made and they put me in a good position because I feel good now. Like you said, I’ve been around a long time and I’m still just as excited as ever to go racing. I’m looking forward to this weekend.
This might sound like a silly question, but are you going to the Monster Cup to do well? You haven’t had an outstanding night at the event yet. Do you see yourself being very competitive and maybe even winning the thing?
You know, it’s funny because I feel like most riders, you come off of a really long season and it’s either been good or bad. There really is no in-between. If it’s been a good season, things flow into October. If it’s been a rush and it’s been a battle, you feel a little wounded in October and the motivation is a little bit lower. I feel like I’ve never raced the Monster Cup prepared and excited to go racing. I’ve always just kind of got my head barely above water and, for the most part, was there by obligation only, not because I wanted to be there. The fact that I feel ready and that I really want to go racing, that’s a first time for me at this event. It makes it fun. And yes, like always, I’m going to win. If I can’t win, I want to be the next best guy. To back up, like I said, we’ve been doing testing and initial thoughts and feelings are really positive, so I feel like I’m in a better place today than I was six-months ago when we went racing supercross. It’s time to go racing to see if those feelings are true and then work on our weaknesses in November and December, if we have any.
Well, if memory serves correct, at this same time last year, you didn’t even know what you were going to be doing for the 2016 race season. I remember speaking with you in the pits the night before last year’s Monster Cup and you were like, “I really hope this Yamaha thing works out for 2016. I don’t know what’s going to happen.” That was a pretty heavy time for you, huh?
Man, we’re in polar opposites now. I mean last year I was paying a couple of old TwoTwo mechanics to stick around and work on my Yamahas that were basically just loaners. We were working out of the Yamaha rig with a couple of amateur kids. At the time it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it, but yeah, I mean we weren’t prepared; we weren’t ready to go take on the world. I feel better about where we are today as opposed to rewinding a year ago, that’s for sure. And then, man, I can sleep at night now! This time last year I didn’t know if the Monster Cup was going to be my last race as a professional. I didn’t have a job and I was unsure whether I could get a job. It was like, shit man, am I going to retire? Is this it? Is this my going out race? My future is now signed, sealed, and delivered and we’re happy and sleeping at night and just working toward the future.
"I feel like I’m in a good place and my head is clear. I’m just excited to go racing again."
As far as Yamaha now being a complete factory team, you guys are right where you want to be now, aren’t you? All the pieces appear to be in place for 2017?
I think we’re early on. We’re like most teams, in that October is always a struggle for any team. New parts are trickling in; you’re picking up new riders; you’re reconfiguring the team a little bit in the fact that you’re bringing on some new staff and personnel; a rider like [Cooper] Webb is bringing on a new mechanic. We’re in that transition just like any normal team. I don’t know if we are, in my opinion, all guns blazing and ready to come out swinging, but as far as Chad Reed is concerned, I’m ready and I’m comfortable and we’re ready to go racing at the best level we can. I think we have a damn good shot at it. I think that three good starts should give me a really good opportunity of getting me the results that I expect.
It appears that Cooper Webb will not be competing at the Monster Cup. Nonetheless, I wanted to ask you about him. Do you two guys know one another? Have you interacted as teammates yet?
I feel like Cooper and I have a lot of respect for each other. I think he’s a huge talent for our sport and one of our future stars. I feel like I’ve always shown respect to him and likewise on his side. I try to help when I can, like when he was a Lites [250] kid. Yeah, he hits me up on phone calls and texts and asks my opinion and things like that. I hope that I can be a good … um … what’s the word I’m looking for?
Mentor?
I don’t know that I want to be a mentor. For me, I want to be somebody with experience that gives him my true opinion, whether he wants to hear it or not. If he asks, I’ll tell him. He can let it go in one ear and out the other, or he’ll hold onto what I have to say. He’s a smart kid, so I think he’ll be good. And I’m excited. I think that for me, a single rider team last year was what we needed. Any more than that would have been a real struggle. I think that now, as a team, we’re ready to take on another guy and we’ve got a good package and the two of us will be competitive. For me being older and seasoned, it’s nice to have somebody young come in. I feel as motivated, if not more motivated, this year as ever because I have a young teammate. Cooper brings youth and excitement and all those kinds of things. I think it’s all a real positive thing.
At the level you guys are at in the sport, it’s kind of hard to be friends with your teammate, isn’t it?
It’s real difficult. Especially when you’re both competitive. There’s egos involved and I’m not exempt from that. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t as competitive as ever and you don’t want to get beat. I see the way the cards are lining up and the way they’re falling within the Yamaha team, so I’m motivated. I’m excited. I want to do real well and prove that I can still do it and that I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.
What’ll the competition be like at the Monster Cup? [Ken] Roczen on a Honda, [Ryan] Dungey being back in the mix, Eli Tomac on form, the MXGP World Champion Tim Gajser set to line up [Note; Gajser was injured and had to drop from the race after this interview was recorded].
Yeah, it’s really quite an interesting lineup. Roczen is obviously really solid as he is just coming off of a title and now he’s switched over to a new team and a new bike. Though Kenny has a lot of momentum and he was really dominant, there are so many things going on within his head and he’ll have to be learning a new bike in race conditions. As a racer, that’s either good or bad. There is no in-between. You just don’t come out and you do good and you’re happy. It’s either come out and you kill it, or you come out and you suck and you go home thinking, Man, I’ve got some work to do. And like you said, Dungey is very, very, very strong in supercross and has had some time off, so I think he’ll be fresh and ready to go. Gajser, he’s a wildcard in the fact that you just don’t know. There’s no whoops at the Monster Cup, but it’s a supercross track. It’s not a hybrid track as they once tried to call it—it’s a real supercross track with supercross obstacles. The fact that we don’t have whoops will make it easier for him, but other than that, it’s very much a supercross track and it will be quite interesting to see how he does. We’ll get a bit of a taste on all this, you know, where Dungey stacks up as well as [Marvin] Musquin and Gajser when they race that Manufacturers’ Cup this weekend in Germany. The timing and scheduling is really a bummer because that race would be really cool. I think that it has potential. It’s an event that I think Youthstream could do a really good job with. It’s just a shame that the scheduling is so against us right now.
You’ve been racing supercross here in the United States for over 15 years now. Does winning a race such as the Monster Cup—a race that doesn’t count for a championship—mean a lot to a guy such as yourself?
You know my personal opinion is that any time you can win, it’s a huge deal. At this level, it’s huge. From a rider’s point of view, and as an athlete, you’re always trying to be the best. You’re always trying to build yourself up. If you go there and you struggle and it doesn’t go alright, you brush it off and say, Man, it wasn’t my time. I wasn’t prepared. You have a list of things that are facts, but in your mind you kind of let that race go in one ear and out the other and you forget about it. But if you win, man, you take that thing to the bank and you’re pumped. You’re like, That’s it! We nailed the settings! 2017 is going to be awesome! There are so many ways you can look at it and we’ve heard it all before. Man, a million bucks would be frickin’ awesome in my bank account. If I can get some holeshots and throw down for three motos, it would be nice to win. For me, I want to win. I want to go do well. That’s where I stand.
Sounds good, Chad. You sound like you’re in a real good place.
I am. I’m in a good place. Time away, time to rethink, time to regroup, not having to stress about running a race team, not having to stress about a job, all those things, for any human, are healthy things. I feel like I’m in a good place and my head is clear. I’m just excited to go racing again. I really hope we can let go of my age. It’s not going to go away, but in my opinion, as long as I line up, I think everybody should think I have a shot at winning. People may like that, hate that, agree to disagree, but for me and my way of thinking, if I’m on the line then I believe that I can challenge and I can win the race. My good friend Valentino [Rossi] is consistently proving at age 37 you can still be competitive, and I’m only 34. I don’t feel old, or feel beat, or feel over it, I feel refreshed, I feel excited, I feel that I have a lot of experience that can work for me and I have a bike that is getting better and allows me to be comfortable. As always, whether I’m a 19-year-old Chad Reed or a 34-year-old Chad Reed, when I’m comfortable and I have that feeling, then I can make it happen.