Reed Stays Perfect

Henny Ray Abrams | March 9, 2002

Boost Mobil/Yamaha/Troy Racing’s Chad Reed kept his perfect AMA/EA Sports Eastern Regional Supercross season alive with his fourth win in a row, this one coming on a hot and sunny afternoon at Daytona International Speedway.

Reed ran down early leader Grant Langston, of the Red Bull KTM team, and moved in for a pass just after a 180 degree left on the sixth lap. Langston made a mistake and the two made contact with Langston going down. He recovered to finish third. Team Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Michael Brown was second

“I went into the corner really hard on the outside trying to square him (Langston) off,” the Australian Reed said. “He knew what I was trying to do and our lines came together. It’s unfortunate. I was really looking forward to it and, you know, it’s really fun when you’re racing. It seems like the three of us have been a step above everybody. I think for the rest of the year, it’s going to be mainly us up there.”

Of the crash, Langston said, “Our lines crossed and we jumped into each other. I ended up being the one going down because that’s kind of how my luck has been. I just lost my rhythm completely when I got up. I struggled and there was no way I was going to catch the front two.”

Brown said that he “hung in there as hard as I could. I was just trying to stay with him and stay relaxed the first couple laps there. Then Langston went down and I started pushing a little harder to stay with Reed. Then my arms got really pumped up.”

Reed’s point total after four rounds is 100, 16 up on Brown with Red Bull KTM’s Steve Boniface, 13th today, fourth with 62.

125 EASTERN REGIONAL SUPERCROSS:

1. Chad Reed (Yam); 2. Mike Brown (Kaw); 3. Grant Langston (KTM); 4. Branden Jesseman (Suz); 5. Joshua Woods (Suz); 6. Greg Schnell (Yam); 7. John Down (KTM); 8. Andrew Short (Suz); 9. Buddy Antunez (Suz); 10. Ryan Clark (Yam); 11. Kelly Smith (Yam); 12. Tyson Hadsell (Yam); 13. Steve Boniface (KTM); 14. Joshua Summey (Yam); 15. Keith Johnson (Yam); 16. Jeff Gibson (Yam); 17. Johnny Marley (Hon); 18. Steve Mertens (Hus); 19. Turbo Reif (Suz); 20. Billy Laninovich (KTM); 21. Larry Ward (Yam); 22. Troy Adams (Yam).

Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor

Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.