Reed Races to Victory at Geelong Supercross

Suzuki riders were again in fine form during Round Three of the Australasian Supercross Championship at Geelong's Skilled Stadium on Saturday with Chad Reed winning Pro Open and Matt Moss finishing second in Pro Lites.

In front of a huge crowd of 16,500, Team Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Reed won the new triple challenge format on his RM-Z450 to remain unbeaten and continue his dominance of the series.

After topping practice and qualifying and winning his heat race, Reed fought off early challenges to prevail in the opening two heats of the triple challenge. In the six-lap final, he took the lead on the second tour and went on to win by over three seconds securing his third round win of the year.

Also in Pro Open, Cameron Taylor enjoyed his strongest weekend since joining Team Shift Motul Suzuki. On his RM-Z450, Taylor took second in his heat race, and finished sixth, third and sixth in the three triple challenge races. The strong results saw Taylor take fourth for the weekend and move up to sixth in the championship standings.

Fresh from his Pro Lites win at Adelaide just seven days earlier, Team Shift Motul Suzuki's Matt Moss was in fine form at Geelong. The 20-year-old topped practice and cruised to fourth in his heat to book a place in the final.

Moss' chances of victory were severely dented by a dramatic start where he hit the start gate. Having dropped to last, Moss charged up the order on his Suzuki RM-Z250, eventually finishing second behind twin brother Jake to maintain a strong second in the championship.

With Lawson Bopping sidelined by a broken scaphoid sustained in Adelaide, Kieran Tisdale was the sole Team Shift Motul Suzuki Development representative in Geelong. Tisdale fought hard to finish second in the last-chance qualifier and secure his second final start of the year in which he finished 19th.

Round Four of the Australasian Supercross Championship will be held at Parramatta Stadium in Sydney on Saturday November 8th.

Chad Reed:

"I have really been looking forward to this round. I knew this venue would be awesome and this track was great to race on and allowed all riders to produce some really fast times. This is one of the biggest crowds I have ever seen in Australian Supercross and they got right behind all of the riders.

"I am blown away by how much the riders keep raising the bar at each round; they all just keep getting faster and stronger."

Cameron Taylor:

"I'm pleased with how the day went. Starts have been one of the main areas we've been working on and we made some changes after Adelaide which have helped. Our race pace on the Suzuki RM-Z450 was good and it was great to be up there mixing it with guys like Chad Reed and holding our own. Fourth is our best result so far and we're moving forward with each round; I'm looking forward to Sydney in a fortnight."

Matt Moss:

"It's a shame about the start of the final; I hit the start gate, flicked up and was lucky not to crash. We dropped to dead last and from there it was just about regaining as many places as possible.

"The Suzuki RM-Z250 was great and we were up to second by about half race distance. Jake Moss was a fair way ahead so we made sure we got second place and heap of points for the championship."

Jay Foreman - Team Shift Motul Team Manager:

"It was another great performance from Chad Reed on the RM-Z450 to make it three wins in a row, he's a pro. We've been working with Cameron Taylor to help him at race starts, which are so important, and we've made some more improvements in that department.

"He rode well and fourth is a good reward; he's only going to get stronger as the season progresses. Considering he could've very easily crashed at the start second is a great result for Matt Moss; from last he did very well to get back up the order.

"We've now got a weekend off between rounds, which is the first time we've had all the bikes and trucks at the workshop since the start of the season. There's plenty of work to do before Sydney and we'll go there confident of making it another successful weekend for Suzuki."

2008 AUSTRALASIAN SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (AFTER THREE ROUNDS):

PRO OPEN: 1 Chad Reed (Suzuki RM-Z450) 75, 2 Jay Marmont 64, 3 Cheyne Boyd 52, 4 Daniel Reardon 48, 5 Daniel McCoy 44, 6 Cameron Taylor (Suzuki RM-Z450) 43, 7 Craig Anderson 41, 8 Troy Carroll 40, 9 Brett Landman 36, 10 Nathan Crawford 33.

PRO LITES: 1 Jake Moss 72, 2 Matt Moss (Suzuki RM-Z250) 69, 3 Ryan Marmont 52, 4 Luke George 48, 5 Danny Anderson 42, 6 Tye Simmonds 36, 7 Adam Monea 34, 8 Taylor Potter 33, 9 Kirk Gibbs 32, 10 Todd Waters 28.