Chad Reed won his second consecutive AMA Pro Motocross Championship race Saturday night, taking the Motosport.com Motocross National from Washougal MX Park.
Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki rider Reed, of Australia, took his third win of the 2009 in the 450 Class. USA Today
Reed, who has been battling a mystery stomach illness for most of the season, can take comfort in the fact that he can see the points championship now. Reed, from Australia, has a 65-point lead over Grant, of Riverside, Calif., through eight rounds of the 12-round series.
Considering a rider can only amass 50 points in a single round, Reed could probably coast to his first national outdoor title with second, third, or fourth-place finishes.
Washougal proved, however, that he does not care to coast.
“You never try to settle,” he said.
After winning the first moto of the day and how the second moto developed, it turned out that Reed only needed a fourth-place finish for the Washougal overall. But he powered through for a 1-1, dominant finish.
“I was struggling at the beginning with the sun and with the track,” Reed said. “Halfway through, the sun started going behind the trees, and I just went for it.” The Columbian
Reed also had to work a bit to preserve his overall victory in the 450 class. After scoring a wire-to-wire win in the first moto, Reed got off to a sixth-place start in the second moto and spent a good portion of it reeling in fast starters Josh Grant and Jason Lawrence, but he first had to get around Antonio Balbi, Matt Goerke, his teammate Michael Byrne and Davi Millsaps.
Reed slowly but surely erased the eight-second deficit on Lawrence, and then spent another few laps chasing down Grant, passing the JGR Toyota Yamaha rider three laps from the end. He went on to win, stretching his points lead to 65 over Grant, who overtook second in the standings from Andrew Short.
“I just put my head down. I didn’t even know who was winning,” Reed said of moto two. “The sun was setting and coming through the trees and made it really hard to see in some places so I just kept looking for lines. I’ve just tried to be smooth (and) fast throughout the motos. The 30 minutes is the easy part. Today I felt strong. I just did what I had to do to win.” Cycle News
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