Reed’s Fifth

| April 5, 2003

Yamaha’s Chad Reed came through again tonight for his third win in a row, and fifth of the season, in the Pontiac Silverdome, closing in to within 16 points of Honda’s Ricky Carmichael in the quest for the AMA Supercross Championship.

SoBe Suzuki’s Sean Hamblin actually came away with the holeshot, but Reed made a pass stick later on the first lap – although it took Reed two tries to make a pass stick on the 20-year-old Californian. From there, Reed ran. Carmichael started somewhat poorly, and once he got into second, he gained on Reed for much of the race, only for a few late bobbles to keep him back. Reed won by 4.666 seconds.

Also for the third week in a row, Honda’s Ernesto Fonseca finished third, although he was nearly 43 seconds behind his teammate Carmichael. Despite a few bobbles, Hamblin finished fourth and was the last rider on the lead lap after 20 circuits. Mach 1 Yamaha’s Heath Voss rounded out the top five.

The first champion of 2003 was crowned tonight as well. SoBe Suzuki’s Branden Jesseman only had to finish eighth or better in order to clinch the 125cc Eastern Regional Supercross Championship and he finished sixth after a poor start, a fall, and a few bobbles. He broke down into tears on the podium as he held his well-earned first number-one plate.

Boost Mobile/Yamaha/Troy Racing’s Ivan Tedesco won the main event after passing early leader and teammate Brock Sellards, whose bike broke later in the race, causing him to fall in the whoops and be hit by Jesseman’s closest competitor Mike Brown. Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Brown continued on for third.

Red Bull KTM’s Brett Metcalfe was running second with only a two laps left when his KTM 125 SX began to smoke and he was tossed off in midair over a rather large jump. Team Manager Larry Brooks says initial diagnosis shows that Metcalfe suffered a severely bruised hip in the fall.

Local Michigander Kelly Smith got the runner-up spot for his best finish of the year on the 3DR YZ250F.

125cc Main: 1. Ivan Tedesco (Yam); 2. Kelly Smith (Yam); 3. Mike Brown (Kaw); 4. Matthieu Lalloz (Suz); 5. Steve Boniface (KTM); 6. Branden Jesseman (Suz); 7. Joshua Summey (Yam); 8. Michael Blose (Yam); 9. Jeff Gibson (Suz); 10. Tommy Hofmaster (Yam); 11. Tyson Hadsell (Yam); 12. Barry Carsten (Suz); 13. Tommy Harrison (Suz); 14. Jacob Martin (Yam); 15. Jacob Marsack (Suz); 16. David Hill (Suz); 17. Brett Metcalfe (KTM); 18. Scott Metz (KTM); 19. Brock Sellards (Yam); 20. Erick Vallejo (Yam); 21. Kevin Johnson (Yam); 22. Tiger Lacey (Yam).

Race Time: 15 min., 55.760 sec.

Margin of Victory: 9.768 sec.

250cc Main: 1. Chad Reed (Yam); 2. Ricky Carmichael (Hon); 3. Ernesto Fonseca (Hon); 4. Sean Hamblin (Suz); 5. Heath Voss (Yam); 6. Keith R. Johnson (Yam); 7. Larry Ward (Hon); 8. Nick Wey (Yam); 9. Ryan Clark (Yam); 10. Josh Demuth (Yam); 11. Joe Oehlhof (Hon); 12. Casey Lytle (Yam); 13. Brian Mason (Yam); 14. Jason Thomas (Hon); 15. Tyler Evans (Suz); 16. Greg Schnell (Yam); 17. James Povolny Jr. (Hon); 18. Jimmy Wilson (Yam); 19. Ted Campbell (Hon); 20. Clark Stiles (Hon).

Race Time: 19 min., 48.165 sec.

Margin of Victory: 4.666 sec.

By Freelance