Australian multi-time former national supercross champion and two-time former United States supercross champion Chad Reed may be going yellow for 2019.
Reed says he won’t race the 2019 Supercross season unless he is on a team that pays his way and the JGR Suzuki Team has come up featuring on his social media feeds.
While it seems as though factory teams are staying away from the 36-year-old Reed, he is still highly-regarded in the sport and has a huge fan base that would attract attention to any team and the Autotrader JGR team would be mindful of that.
Reed had this to say: “In our sport, every rider tests for different teams it’s just always private because of contract obligations. Today, I’m in a unique position of no manufacturer contract.
“So today I’ll try share my fun experience testing the factory JGRMX bike.”
Reed raced in New Zealand on several occasions as a young man, before heading off to Europe and racing for Jan DeGroot’s factory Kawasaki team in the 2001 250cc Motocross World Championships.
He won the Dutch GP at Lierop, becoming the first Australian to win a world 250cc GP race.
He finished the world series overall runner-up that season, behind French Suzuki factory rider Mickael Pichon, the then team-mate of New Zealand’s Josh Coppins.
Coppins finished sixth overall in the 250cc class that season, although, especially for our Kiwi readers, it is interesting to note that Coppins (who had by then moved to the Vismara Honda Team) himself finished runner-up the following season, also behind Pichon.
Reed was AMA Athlete of the Year in 2009.
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