Troy Dog
I’ve been waiting weeks to talk about this race again in this very feature! Salt Lake City 2009 was such a classic race between two of the biggest legends that this sport has ever seen. This was the penultimate round that year as the Las Vegas finale was the next weekend.
To set the stage for this race we need to go back two weeks prior to round 14 in Jacksonville. That was the infamous race where Reed and Stewart battled the majority of the race, they came together before the triple, and Reed’s fork guard came loose. Reed and Stew had a confrontation on the track during practice earlier that day to really spice this championship race up.
Again, in Salt Lake City, Stew stalked Reedy for the first half of the Main Event before making the pass with eight laps to go. Then it was Reed’s turn to try and make a pass back. We had seen this scenario play out at previous rounds and my buddy Fro would often refer to it as a “chess match”, which is exactly what it was.
I’m sorry to my old friend Kyle Chisholm that we have to bring this race up again, but he was an interesting piece in this race as well. He was black flagged after coming together with Reed while being lapped. After watching this 15 years later I have a different view on all of this now. First, why does the broadcast paint Chiz as some vicious villain? Reed was obviously not happy afterwards with the San Manuel Yamaha team (I’m sure there was bad blood there after his old team signed Stew anyway). I’ve talked to Chiz about this race from time to time on and off the record and his story has never changed. I think he honestly got sketchy on the step on and off and got out of control into the corner. I think this because he almost hits his teammate Stew before coming together with Reed. Chiz was a rookie in the class at this point and I think he just got out of sorts. I get why he was black flagged and talked about because it did look like a take out, but put the pitchforks down. If Chiz wanted to take him down, he had the skills to do so and Reed would have been on the ground. This isn’t the little leagues after all. This was like 15 years ago.
After this race Stew and Reed wouldn’t send one another a Christmas card until like last year, which was 14 years after the fact. Stew went into the Las Vegas finale with a six point lead over Reed. Reed would attempt a small attempt to take Stew really wide in the outside portion of the track, but Stew brought it home in second and accomplished his second and final 450SX Championship.
It’s amazing to watch the similarities in these old clips. The way that Reed carried himself on the podium back then is an exact replica of the way Cooper Webb carries himself today. They won’t back down from anything, no matter what happens on the track, and they will never give up. Never count these guys out of anything!
Davi Millsaps finished third this night in his amazing One Industries gear on his Factory Red Bull Honda. Yes, remember that Red Bull had a team deal with Honda? This was the last race of Broc Hepler’s career. He finished 15th on the night and retired early due to his head injuries. Man, Hepler was fast. It makes you wonder what could have been if he could stay on two wheels. I suppose that we could say the same for Stewart as well. How many titles and wins did he throw away while leading?
Commercial break…
I miss 2009. I was in my senior year and getting ready to graduate high school when this Salt Lake City banger happened. I’ve got nothing but great memories popping up when I watch these old races and I hope the same for you. Can we talk about how great Thor gear was back in this time period? Reed’s setup would still look amazing today!
In conclusion, Kyle Chisholm still wants to race in 2025 and he has an option in his contract to do so. Besides Billy Laninovich who just came back to race SX this year at the age of 40, Chiz has outlasted everyone else racing in this main event by at least ten years (Reed and Josh Grant are the exceptions).
Main Image: Octopi Media
