Troy Dog
Notice that this column now has a sponsor? That’s right! Troy Dog joined the Blu Cru and you should too! I have one in my garage right now and I can’t wait to go shred it! Thank you to Yamaha for believing in my ELITE columns on this dirt bike website enough to sponsor me. What a dream come true! BTW: Have you seen the all-new YZ450F? OH. MY. GOODNESS. I can’t wait to test that bad boy.
Daytona Supercross
March 11, 2005
“The one that sticks out is Daytona in 2005. I took a beating the week before in St. Louis. I was really struggling in that particular year with the introduction to the aluminum frame on the 250 two stroke,” Reed began when I asked him about his all-time favorite race.
In early spring of 2005, Chad Reed was the defending Supercross champion on the Yamaha Factory team, riding a YZ250. He was four days away from his 23rd birthday when the gate dropped at Daytona.
“I took a beating the week before and I believe he (Ricky Carmichael) even crashed and literally passed me in the same spot twice. At that point you’re like, what the heck just happened?”
Daytona was the tenth round of the season that year. If you remember that season kicked off as “The Perfect Storm” with Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, James Stewart, Kevin Windham, and Travis Pastrana all racing together for the first time. Well, it turns out that Anaheim was actually the perfect storm as terrential rain made the track into a muddy quagmire. Reed only earned five points after his front wheel locked up from the mud. Reed wouldn’t finish off of the podium in the next eight races, he was second in six of those, and even got a win in San Diego. Despite that impressive run, Reedy was still down 35 points in the standings to the Suzuki mounted Carmichael.
“That particular year they had lowered all of the berms on the outside of the stadiums and even sometimes on the inside,” Reed remembers. “So, we had more flat turns and in particular my biggest struggle that year was getting a feeling from the front end where it would turn on the flat, especially on the hard pack tracks. That was never really an area that I had struggled prior to that. It was an area that Ricky was really strong at, always. It was an area that I couldn’t give up to Ricky and when we switched to the aluminum frame he absolutely murdered me in that catagory.”
After a frustrating weekend in St. Louis, where Reed finished runner-up to Carmichael he came into RC’s home race fired up.
“Then we showed up to Daytona and it’s his backyard, right? I just basically said, I just got my butt kicked, so I’m going to whip his butt in his backyard,” Reed said.
Reed won at Daytona in 2004, but without Carmichael on the line who was sidelined for the entire 2004 SX season with a torn ACL.
“I don’t believe that he (RC) had even lost one there at that point. He was so strong there, we all knew Ricky was strong, but he was really fast at Daytona,” Reed said.
When the gate dropped for the main event, Reed took the holeshot with Factory Honda’s Travis Preston, Carmichael, and Factory Connection Honda’s Mike LaRocco in tow. Reed pulled a bit of a gap on the opening laps as Carmichael got settled in second. Then RC started to inch up on Reed and the battle was on.
“It was sand, dirt, and a lot of ruts. For whatever reason the bike was really good in those conditions,” recounted Reedy. “We battled for 12 or so laps, where he was just right on me. I didn’t put a foot wrong and I was inch perfect. Finally, I just started to inch away and then he made a big mistake and threw it down the road.”
RC had crashed in the whoops late in the race as he tried to get close enough to make the pass for the lead.
RC had made a few mistakes prior to his crash as did Reed, as they both were pushing as hard as they could go. At one point before RC’s now infamous whoop crash they had gapped 3rd place LaRocco by 30 seconds.
Reed had won his second main event of the season and more importantly, his second Daytona in a row.
“You know, the rest is history. I kicked his ass at Daytona!” Reed said. “That race will forever be in my memory as a good one!”
Watch the race below:
