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CHAD REED
450 SX / 9TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / WILSON
>> In the past week Chad Reed was either mocked or praised for the events that took place at round 13 in St Louis. The controversy was between Reed
and Dungey, and if you don’t know about it yet you must live under a rock. This weekend in Seattle the two champions where able to talk and smooth things over. Hoping to leave everything in the past Speedy was looking for a rebound weekend. Chad found himself upfront early in his heat race, just behind the KTM duo of Marvin Musquin and Ryan Dungey. It wasn’t long until the Factory Ya- maha shuffled outside of a qualifying position. Chad was unable to get a clean jump off the gate in his semi and was outside of a qualifying spot, but by the end of the first lap he was hanging on to the last ticket. @crtwotwo got around Friese for 3rd and began the chase on 2nd place rider Malcolm Stewart. It was a photo finish for the #22 and #47 at the checkered flag but M.Stewart was able to hold the position. After the Semi Chad seemed to be eyeing up the outside rhythm of the first section after the finish where he seemed to only find his groove when he went to the inside. Shortly after the Semi race Chad walked over to FIM Race Director John Gallagher to share his thoughts on how he wasn’t pleased with some of the riding that went on in the Semi. Stating that he wants it to be fair out on the course. Chad got a bad jump in the main event and was near last to the first corner. Luckily he was able to make his way around a few downed riders by riding over a tough block that was places in his path. A few laps later and Chad was already inside of the top 10. Six minutes into the race Chad ran into some misfortune and dropped from 9th to 15th. Chad quickly got himself back to 11th where it looked like he was going to finish until Bogle and Brayton got together handing Chad back his 9th place, where he finished.
54 GRITMOTO • APRIL 9, 2017