Courtesy of RacerX

April 9, 2018 1:00pm

by:   & 

Some interesting stories from the Seattle mud—and even the pits. These interviews will give you an idea. First, Phil Nicoletti finally had some good luck for once, as he somehow came from a first-turn crash and a huge deficit to win his heat race, the first such win in his career. Of course, the black cloud returned in the main when he got stuck in the mud and had to push his bike out.

Frenchman Cedric Soubeyras was supposed to ride for the Nut Up/LVN 100 Suzuki team, but we heard the team had an issue with parking in the pits and decided to turn around and leave the event. That left him without a bike—even without gear—until two other Suzuki teams pitched in to build him a bike and get him out there. He rewarded them by making the main and finishing 13th in 450SX.

51Fifty Energy Drink Yamaha's Hayden Mellross raced through a dislocated shoulder to grab tenth in the 250SX main event.

Finally, Chad Reed gave the crowd something to cheer for as he tried to nurse his smoking, clutch-fried Husqvarna to the finish. The bike finally let go in a cloud of smoke, but Reed pushed it to the base of the finish line to record a seventh place, his best result of the year.

CHAD REED | BOOST MOBILE CR22 HUSQVARNA | SEVENTH IN 450SX 

Racer X: You had a fifth place, looking good. In the end your clutch gave out, but you got seventh. Smoke show at the end. What are you going to do, right?
Chad Reed: Smoke and mirrors! I felt good all day, to be honest. It was challenging and felt like I could ride it somewhat decent. We obviously got a little bit warm [the bike] there in the heat race. I really don’t know [why]. We put a clutch in it for the main event. Right away, the first lap, the thing started detonating a little bit.

You were smoking before almost anybody.
Yeah. The thing that kind of bums me out a little bit, I guess, is I was cautious and I was aware of the bike kind of already feeling hot. So, then I started to try to ride it in a way that I wasn’t so hard on it. But, obviously, I could feel it getting warm. I could smell it and all those things. So, then I’m like, I was in a pretty comfortable, pretty easy fifth. Whenever I kind of got a bit of a rhythm going, I felt like I could catch [Broc] Tickle a little bit. But I kind of had to let go of that just because every time I pushed a little bit, the bike just felt like it was getting worse. So then three laps to go, I’m like, it’s going to be close. Then on the last lap there I was wide open and it was going nowhere. Then the thing was, I was trying to limp it home and the last lap, like I said, I was wide open and it was just kind of slipping. Then I heard the crowd go off and the flame, so I knew Eli [Tomac] was kind of right there. So, I’m like, there can’t be too many people behind me. So, I’m like, f*&k it. I’m going to pin it. It doesn’t matter at that point. No one can beat me other than the two guys that I was battling with anyway. So, I just went for it and she didn’t quite make it. We almost got there. But, anyway, it was still my best race of the year. It was a lot of fun.

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RacerX 2018 Seattle Supercross Between the Motos