Well, he’s doing it again. Team Monster Yamaha/Fly 360 Chad Reed is defying the critics and turning the clock back with a pair of runner up finishes in the last two weeks. With a field full of hot young kids looking to climb and scratch their way to the top, it’s been the old man that (literally) didn’t have a ride locked in until a week before the first race who is producing the goods. The deal with Monster and Yamaha getting together took a long time and factory Yamaha wanted to make sure their first time back at the races was done correctly. Reed’s entrance into the series was low key as he rode to a sixth at round one. The next week in San Diego he chased Ryan Dungey around and this week he did pretty much the same thing with a bit more gap between him and the defending champion. Reed’s now second in the points, looks like he might win soon and all in all the whole ‘switch to another brand again’ thing is once again working out for CR. It’s amazing right? Still sweaty and champagne soaked after his second place at Anaheim 2, we caught up to CR to talk the race, his set-up and more…

What a race. Second place. At one point those guys started reeling you in late, were you getting worried?

Yeah, I made three mistakes on back-to-back laps. Truthfully I don’t even know what I did, that’s what’s worse! One lap I jumped a little wide and got into the bales and then the next lap I kind of changed my line to stay away from the bales and it clipped me or I hit the rear brake or something. It was a little weird. And then those guys rode right up onto me and I had to be protective. But I knew that once I got to the whoops I’d pull a little gap. I could feel it. And then if I got that triple-triple in I would pull away too. So just felt like I had pieces but just not the complete package, similar to last week. So I was a little…

Last week I was happy. This weekend…

You want more right?

I want more. I’m not going to lie. But…I’m happy. It’s a long series. Seconds are good at this point. But the guy I think that we’re going to race for the championship is winning races, so it makes it tough. He’s getting good starts so you can’t let him get away. I thought the both of us didn’t ride great at the beginning. I felt that everyone made a lot of mistakes. I knew the track was tough and seeing what people were doing around me I knew that obviously I wasn’t the only one having some struggles. Take it and move on and try to be better next week.

To read more and see Simon Cudby’s images from A2 check out the latest issue of OTOR HERE