Vital MX Interview: Chad Reed

Click the following link to check out a video interview where Chad talks about his season so far, racing with James Stewart, the motocross nationals and MXdN in '07, and V8 Supercars in Australia. Click the following link for a 7-photo gallery of images from press day at Anaheim 3.

There's no doubt Chad Reed's had a crazy start to his '07 Supercross season. After showing great speed in Toronto, racing with James Stewart and eventually taking the win aboard his Yamaha YZ450F, things were looking bright for Chad and the new L&M Racing squad, as well as their new primary sponsor, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

Unfortunately, six days before the start of the '07 season at Anaheim 1, his title hopes looked like they'd suffered a major hit when Chad crashed and suffered a fractured shoulder blade, chipped collarbone, as well as injuries to his chest that made it tough for him to breath. Amazingly, he was not only on the gate for Anaheim 1, he grabbed the main event holeshot and ended up on the podium in third place. Heading into the fifth round of the season, Anaheim 3, he's 15 points behind points leader James Stewart.

After leading last weekend in San Francisco, as well as battling with James, he's shown that he's doing everything he can to make the title chase an interesting one, all the way to Las Vegas.

Chad sat down with the press a couple days before Anaheim 3, to answer a wide-ranging sample of questions. Below you'll find a chunk of them, but don't forget to check out above for the links to a photo gallery and a separate video interview.

On the status of his pre-season injury.

As I sit here today, I feel really good. My shoulder, my chest…everything's getting much better by the day. The biggest thing I had problems with for the longest time was breathing. Not getting a full breath…just from the sternum and the hit that I took. With the broken shoulder blade and all that, 30% of the time you get broken ribs as well, and I was lucky not to get a broken rib.

I've been working this week and feel like I'm pretty much 100%, and ready to go race.

When I took the fall your immediate feelings are, 'The season's over.' I was just like, 'We'll take it day by day.' Unfortunately, I've been in this situation before, and this time I had six days to get well, where before (Daytona in '06) I only had a day. I think to show up at the first Anaheim and to be able to race and be on the podium, and not be at home watching it on live TV was definitely a bonus for me. I was just in survival mode. I was super-pumped to be on the podium at the first two races, dealing with what I was dealing with.

On last week's round in San Francisco.

At this point I can only take the good from it. It wasn't like I crashed out of a distant second or distant third. I crashed out while leading. That felt good. I felt that I had the pace. I felt my mistakes were less than the other two (Stewart and Carmichael), but I made one big one and it cost me the race.

My starts are getting good and consistent, and that's a lot of the race right there. I just need to be strong for 20 laps now.

The track had a lot of different things. It had ruts, it had hard spots, and had some perfect traction. It was quite obvious that the three of us were pushing. We all got a great start and we all went for it, and we all made mistakes. That kind of shows that we were giving it everything we had. It was a tough track to go fast on.

On Anaheim 3.

I'd love to put an end to James' win streak here at Anaheim. Anaheim's always been good. I've had a lot of great wins, and my first big win was here. At this point I just want to go out there and get the track down and just be happy with my riding. I think this weekend I need to ride for the win and go for it.

On racing with James Stewart.

Confidence is a big deal in whatever you're doing. I think he has a lot of confidence to this point. At the first round he was night and day better than everyone. He was on his game. I felt that going into the second round and third round, I was getting better and better, but I wasn't in a position to challenge. Going into San Fran, I got to ride that week and we had changed a few things on the bike and I just felt things were going to be better. I think that we can beat him. I wouldn't have rode the first race if I didn't feel I could win this title, or I had a shot. I would have sat at home and healed up and come back at the end of the year.

I think San Fran was a nice surprise for everyone. Up until then it was a runaway, and everyone was kind of talking perfect seasons, and all that kind of crap. I think it's nice to go out and have three guys battle. It's a long season and anything can happen. I crashed and got hurt and that was totally out of my control.

On perfect seasons.

Ricky's done it twice and I was there and it was hard to watch. I wasn't going to let that happen, and I was doing everything in my power to stop it that weekend (in San Francisco). I took the fall and Ricky pulled through. At worst, I lost two points instead of three, and it's good.

On starts.

That (the start in San Francisco) was exciting. I've always been kind of hit-and-miss with my starts, and it's nice to start hitting them and being in the top five, or top three every week.

On his bike.

You learn so much from racing. It's like day after day and week after week you test at the test track…I think when you go to the races you learn. You find where you're at, and what you need to be better at, and go to work. When you're not riding during the week it's hard to go to work. Last week and this week we did a lot of work to the bike, and I feel that things are getting better for Yamaha. I'm excited for that.

On his teammate, Nate Ramsey, and the L&M Racing team.

It's great to have Nathan. Not only are we neighbors and good friends…we ride together all the time, and it's exciting to have somebody out there who's willing to put in the work that you put into it. It's been fun. Our team's so much fun. It's awesome. The vibe is great and if we have an idea it's not like it has to go through ten people to get that idea to the table. We can make it happen right away. I think that's what I'm enjoying most about the new team.

I think both of us have a part of the team that didn't change too much. For me, I came from Yamaha and just went to a new team. So the bike and everything like that didn't change a whole lot. It was kind of difficult, a little bit, because people have feelings and I left the major team to (go to) another team. At first that was a little hard to deal with, just dealing with your old team, but being on another team, it kind of felt a little awkward at first. But I think everything's starting to gel, and everyone's getting on well.

As for Nathan, he came from basically Larry's team last year anyway, and just had a change to the 450 and Yamaha.

On tangling with Eric Sorby while lapping him in San Francisco, and commenting afterward, "I'll remember that."

You've got to take that into consideration. I expect to be lapping him week after week, so I need to be smart when I'm around him now, and not put myself in a position like that.

I talked to him and he says it wasn't intentional. At this point you've got to take his word, but I disagree and don't believe him. Even watching it on TV…I was there, and he knew I was there. It wasn't like I snuck up on him.

On Ricky's part-time schedule and racing him in '07.

I think not having a title to look at, you can let it hang out. If you go down,  you go down, and you can say, 'I went down fighting.' But when you've got a title to think about and every point counts, then I think you have a different outlook.

I was quite surprised with Ricky at the first round. I thought Ricky was going to be amazing. I thought he was going to come out swinging and be ready to get Anaheim 1 in his record book. He was just way off. Maybe he put too much effort into it, and it kind of bit him.

I think it's going to be fun. Daytona, Atlanta…he's great there. I think we'll have some good battles.

On 450s being too big for Supercross.

For me, I think it's B.S. I think the bike's fine. Maybe it's hard to ride, but it's the same for everyone. I think they're getting better and better every year. They turn better, they handle better, they're getting lighter by the year. A lot of people think that if two-strokes were around we'd be closer, but I personally don't think so.

On the fuel testing and penalties.

I think my opinion's quite clear. I've been there and done that. I know my team wasn't cheating at the time and I know that my team and most teams get the fuel tested. Every fuel that goes in that bike is tested beforehand. The worst thing from a team's point of view and a rider's point of view is that it's passing, and it's okay. Then the AMA's going to a different lab…and this year they went to a different lab without anyone knowing.  They're coming back different from what everyone else is getting.

I don't believe that there's any advantage whatsoever. I don't think anybody's cheating. I think that from what happened last year with the Ricky situation, if it was me, I'd be ready to go to Australia and hang out down there and go race cars or something. It's crap, I think. They can't go back and make a rule after what they did last year, and the way they deal with it last year.

I think they need to come up with a spec fuel and we go race.

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