Chad Reed discusses getting blacked flagged at the Anaheim II Supercross with FIM Race Director John Gallagher. Photography by Kit Palmer
One of the big topics after the Anaheim II Supercross at Angel Stadium was the altercation between Honda’s Trey Canard and Discount Tire/TwoTwo Motorsports’ Chad Reed that resulted in the AMA throwing a rare black flag for Reed, which forced the veteran racer to pull out of the 450 main event, which resulted in no points being scored on the night.
Reed was holding down fourth place, just ahead of Canard, on the seventh lap when Canard tried to jump to the inside of Reed going into a turn, but the two riders ended up colliding when Canard landed on top of Reed from behind. Both Canard and Reed went down in a heap, and both quickly remounted with Canard getting away first. Moments later, before getting back up to speed, Reed came up behind Canard and “elbowed” him, which resulted in Canard running into a Tuff Block and crashing again.
The incident happened in front of FIM Race Director John Gallagher who immediately called for a black flag on Reed.
“Not ever will we accept a rider taking matters into his own hands,” Gallagher later said.
Reed and his team were upset by Gallagher’s decision, feeling that the incident could have been resolved after the race when cooler heads could have prevailed. They felt it was a rush of judgment on the AMA’s part to take Reed out of the race before it was over. Reed, however, did not deny giving Canard an “elbow.”
It all started when Canard plowed into Reed.
“I followed Chad the lap before and he went outside and I figured he was going to go outside again,” Canard said. “I carried too much momentum and my air brakes didn’t work. I landed right on the back of him and went down really hard. I got back up and was adjusting my goggles—I hit my head on the ground pretty good so my goggles were all sweat filled and was pulling a tear-off—[and] out of nowhere I got hit and crashed again.
“It was a racing incident,” Canard said. “I was trying to go forward. I was not anticipating it at all, so I ran straight into the hay bale.”
Canard went on to finish 11th and then had a few words with Reed.
“I just went to him after the race and said, ‘why would you do that?’ He said that I was an idiot for jumping on him. ‘Dude, I didn’t mean to do that.’ He was still ranting and raving, so I just told him that he was a crybaby—the biggest crybaby in the sport and went away.”
“I went over the jump just before the mechanics area,” Reed said. “I was on the inside and obviously the next minute I’m cartwheeling down the track. Trey jumped right on the back of me, so, yeah, at that point, I’m pretty mad and confused at what just went down. And then we both picked it up and got going, I throw him an elbow and then I get going. I obviously didn’t look back to see that if he went down or anything like that.
“Immediately I see the black flag and I was just kind of a loss for words,” Reed said. “I didn’t really know what to do; I’ve never been black flagged before, especially in a half lap. For sure I’m not denying I threw him an elbow, just a ‘what the f— kind of thing. That’s really about it.
“I was just confused that I got black flagged from something I didn’t think was that bad,” Reed said. “I didn’t know what to do. I think I went an extra lap or something like that; the whole lap I was coming up short on jumps and just kind of like, ‘really, this his happening?’ I’ve never kind of found myself that position. I pulled in and Gallagher wouldn’t even come over to me, which I was kind of bummed on. I wasn’t that mad; I’m more confused than mad.
“After watching it on TV, there is nothing to it. It wasn’t like I t-boned him or anything like that.
“The first thing that Trey said to me was, ‘what were you thinking?’ He caught me a little off guard on even that, I’m like, ‘what was I thinking? You jumped on me!’ I just said, ‘what were you thinking?’ And he continued with, ‘ah, you’re just a crybaby,’ I didn’t even have a comeback for that. That was too funny. My question is, if I wait a turn or two and throw him an elbow, or t-bone him, or get into like everybody else did [regarding another separate incidents on the night], is that okay? But because it happened right in front of the guy; I think he made an emotional decision. That’s why sports like Formula One are professional; you watch it on TV you see it come across the bottom of the screen, basically they’re going to investigate after the race. How do you appeal something when they pull you out of the race? Are they going to go eenie meenie miney mo and throw me in fifth, sixth, eighth, 10th, 12th? I mean, are they going to throw me back in if I win the appeal? It’s kind of stupid on their part in my opinion.”
As he said earlier, Gallagher won’t tolerate riders taking matters into their own hands, nor will the AMA’s Kevin Crowther who said that he and the AMA fully supports Gallagher’s decision to take Reed immediately out of the race.
“I personally have a history of dealing with that, even in regards to things that have happened to Chad [in the past],” Gallagher said. “A good example is when Kyle Chisholm decided to take matters in his own hands to help his teammate out at Salt Lake City, the black flag was drawn then. We’ve had several incidences since then that has drawn black flags; one of them was [Ryan] Dungey and [Jason] Lawrence. Dungey didn’t like what Lawrence doing to him and decided to take matters into his own hands.
“The rush to judgement that Reed is feeling is not true,” Gallagher said. “First off, I get to see it right in front of me, I was literally standing right there when I saw it. And right after it happened, I get an instant replay on the big screen, and I can call them to put it [replay of the incident] up [on the big screen], or sometimes they just play them. In that case, instantly after it happened, they put it up on the big screen, so it wasn’t a rush to judgment. More importantly, when a rider choses to do that, to take matters into his own hands, how would I know when it’s going to stop? Is it going to stop on that one incident? The next time he sees him [is] he going to hit him again or? There’s no ruler [or formula] that says he’s going to do only this much, and that’s why he got a black flag.
“The subject of protesting was, he [Reed] said, ‘what about what Trey did to me?’ I said, ‘I saw it; it was an incident that happened in a race, Trey made a mistake and you ended up crashing with him.’ I said, ‘if you have a problem with it, then I suggest you protest it.’ His response was, I did this because he did that, what are you going to do about that? My answer was, ‘I’m not going to do anything, it was a mistake by a rider.’ If you have a problem, go ahead and protest it. We’ll be happy to pull video and take a look at it. But the result would’ve been the same. I’ve got nine different angles in slow-mo and still feel the same way. Trey made huge mistake; he over-jumped the jump, and he did it on the inside. He had nowhere to go but to go into the guy he was chasing.”
“He [Gallagher] has too much power,” said Dave Osterman, Reed’s team manager. “You can’t have that much power…and just yank a guy out of the race. Everything could have been smoothed over, or discussed, or fined, or take points away or something. I’m not just taking my boss’s side; get everybody around and scrutinize what there is to scrutinize. But just relying on one guy from his angle? They just should have waited with cool heads to decide. Disappointing.”
