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In 2003, Team Yamaha’s Chad Reed came into his rookie 250cc Supercross season with championship aspirations. Reed came in from the World Supercross races in Europe with 2 strong performances — a 4th at Geneva, Switzerland, and winning the 2nd round in Arnhem, Holland. Leading the series was his Team Yamaha teammate, #12 David Vuillemin. Coming into Anaheim 1, the Supercross world witnessed great sadness with the retirement of KTM’s newest rider, Jeremy McGrath #2. McGrath had some lackluster performances in Europe on his 250cc KTM from a pre-season injury, and following a first-ever winless 2002 Supercross season. With Jeremy McGrath gone, the time was now for someone like Reed or Vuillemin to dethrone the 2-time-defending champion, Honda’s Ricky Carmichael. David Vuilllemin had a chance in 2002, but he bypassed the Daytona Supercross due to a shoulder injury, which proved to be the biggest mistake of his life. Carmichael came from a DNF and a 20th place at Anaheim 1 and won the 2002 EA Sports Supercross championship with 11 wins in the 16 races (including winning 9 of the final 10). Chad Reed showed he was ready to make a run at the Supercross title with an easy heat race win. Ricky Carmichael won heat #2, but he was booed by the Anaheim crowd following an incident with Team Suzuki’s Travis Pastrana #199 in his heat race. Travis initially caused the problem when he clipped Carmichael’s footpeg and gassed his RM250 instead of letting Ricky complete the pass. Pastrana crashed, but the crowd thought otherwise and booed the 2-time champion. Carmichael was a wreck for the rest of the night, and the main was proof. In the main, Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Mike Brown #3 pulled the holeshot. Chad Reed passed Brown shortly thereafter and cruised to an easy first career U.S. 250cc Supercross win. Behind Chad, chaos ensued! On lap 5, AMSOIL Honda’s Mike LaRocco #5 crashed over a blind dragons-back double and claimed Travis Pastrana, and 125cc East riders #32 Michael Byrne — LaRocco’s AMSOIL Honda teammate — and Yamaha of Troy’s Ivan Tedesco #52. As for Ricky Carmichael, he got an 8th place start and didn’t move up at an alarming rate. His chances at winning Anaheim 1 for the first time in his career were decreasing. Carmichael crashed twice and came from last twice, and turned his hideous night (from the crowd’s astonishingly poor judgment) into a 2nd place finish. Reed and Carmichael battled all season long, but early inconsistency from Chad Reed (two 6th places) cost him. Carmichael used 7 victories in the first 10 races of the season to give himself a comfortable cushion over Chad Reed. Reed, who won only 2 races early on (A1 and San Diego), managed to win the last 6 races of the season from St. Louis to Las Vegas; Carmichael played it consistent with 2nd place finishes, but still battled hard with Chad Reed to beat him. Carmichael claimed the 2003 250cc AMA Supercross title by just 7 points in the end. Ironically, Team Honda has NOT won a Supercross title since. As for Chad Reed, he had to settle for 2nd overall, and wait another year to win Yamaha’s first 250cc Supercross title since Jeremy McGrath did in 2000.

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SEGUITECI QUI!!!

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