Five Minutes with Chad Reed

Eric Johnson

Steve Cox

To say that TwoTwo Motorsports’ Chad Reed has been frustrated with his 2013 season so far would be an incredible understatement. Throughout his long and storied career, prior to 2013, Reed had finished on the podium in fully 80% of the supercross races he had entered. In 2013, prior to last weekend’s race in St. Louis, Reed had only stood on the podium once this year. But in St. Louis, Reed didn’t just finish on the podium, he was in the battle for the race win throughout the main event. Monster Energy’s Eric Johnson caught up with him afterward to get his thoughts on his season so far and find out what was different in St. Louis.

EJ: Chad, was there a new intensity tonight as compared to the past few weeks, or were we imagining things?
CR: (Sarcastically) It’s just you guys. I’ve been killing it of late.

The past few weeks, you could blame stuff on starts or whatever, but the reality is that tonight you were moving forward constantly.
Yeah, I definitely had a comfort level that I haven’t had all season long. When in doubt, go back to the baseline and try to figure it out. So, we did a lot of work. Actually, I lie… We ditched the lot and went back to last year’s settings, pretty much. So yeah, it seemed like every lap out there, from practice to the main event, it’s like a girlfriend that cheated on you and you’ve got to learn that trust back. And each lap I was getting a little more trust in her and a little more trust in her. You know, you kind of push her a little bit, and she was fine. She was answering the right questions. Honestly, I feel like we had a bike that could have won tonight, but I was just slow at trusting.

So, when you’re coming up on James Stewart, obviously you guys have been close to each other on the track over the years many, many times. Was there any added motivation to say, “All right, James, let’s see what you’ve got…” since he won last week?
Nah. I mean, I kind of had a shot at him and then it seemed like he had maybe three laps where he, I don’t know if he made mistakes, or just didn’t get clean laps, and then RV got him. And then (Justin) Barcia got right on him and then I was kind of right on him. It was kind of like a four-man race. And then (Ryan) Dungey was right on me. I had a look at him, but wasn’t able to capitalize on it. Like I said, each lap I was out there just kind of pushing a little more, pushing a little more and just getting trust back. I mean, it’s frustrating. My season has been, to say it’s been frustrating is an understatement, you know? It rivals 2010 in so many ways and that was not a fun year. So, I’ve been beating my head against the wall day and night, but through it all I feel like we’ve stayed together as a team to try to come up with fixes.

Could it be a chicken-or-the-egg problem? We know you’re fast when you’re happy, but you’re not happy until you are comfortable. But sometimes could it go the other way? Like you start to get happy and maybe it helps you find settings or sort it out?
I wish it was that easy. I wish. During the week, it’s like what’s there not to be happy about? I mean, I’ve got a bad-ass team and a rad family. I enjoy my weeks. I drive my go-karts Mondays and Wednesdays, and Tuesdays and Wednesdays I ride. So, the week starts awesome – drive my go-kart and have a good time – and then Tuesday it’s like you’re back to beating your head against the wall again. And then rebound on Wednesday, drive some karts and then beat your head against the wall. This past week, we went with the setting (from 2012). All year, I haven’t made as few changes that we made all day today. I rode the same tires all day long, the same suspension all day long. So, it’s positive for us, you know? It’s just been a real frustrating year. More than anything, I’m picky. I’ve always been a rider that, like you said, when I’m happy and when I’m comfortable, good things happen. And I just haven’t been comfortable and that hasn’t been making me happy and I haven’t been riding good. So we need to just keep going down this road, I think.

In San Diego it looked like you were really close to where you wanted to be, chasing Davi Millsaps in the main until you fell.
Well, I was where I needed to be but then you saw what happened when I pushed it. I ended up on the ground and a fifth place, when I believe I had what it took to win that night. So, you can always look at it both ways. The end result, I think, we’ve stayed positive, I haven’t given up. It’s funny, everyone thinks I’m old now…

Well, you are…
(Laughs) I am old. But you know, that my time is up and these kids are coming in. But there’s more to it. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes and you saw that tonight. You know, in one week we made great gains, so hopefully this next week we can make the same gains and come out swinging for the last half of the season. Supercross season is over for us [as far as winning a championship is concerned], it’s just a matter of trying to get a win and trying to be up on the podium.

The intensity really seems like it’s ramped up some. We’ve hit halfway and people have played a little nice so far. Do we see that go away through the rest of the season?
I don’t know if I’ve seen a lot of “play nice,” but it’s gnarly. I don’t think that we’re pushing the pace ridiculously high, I just think that everyone’s equipment is pretty close to everyone else’s and the tracks suck. It really sucks to bag on the tracks, but the tracks have just been a joke. And I think that’s really been the thing. When you get a good start, you’re up front, and things are okay. Look at some of the guys who have been consistent podium guys over the last few weeks, they didn’t get good starts tonight and they were kind of back where they started. But there was some passing tonight and the track was a little more difficult, so let’s hope that they keep that going.

From here on out, how do you make sure the girlfriend stays loyal?
(Laughs) I know, right? I’ve got to keep that baby in line. We’ve got the team, you know? The semi will be at my house in Florida on Monday and I’m going to keep them in Florida obviously for Daytona. Then I’m going to keep them back that week before Indy. So, we’ll go to work. Sadly, I was committed to going down the road we were. I didn’t give up on it. I felt like you just keep at it, keep at it. I’d like to claim that I’m one of the better test riders in the paddock and I would think that we’ve got a bad-ass team and I couldn’t figure it out, the team couldn’t figure it out. So, it was time to realize that and then move on. So, we’ve taken a step back to last year’s stuff, and the results are obviously getting better. So, the fork and suspension that we’re on hasn’t been developed since I was in Australia in October, so I think that we’ve got some gains that we can make these next couple week and get comfortable.