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Yamaha Racing
Reed takes brave 12th in Detroit after practice spill
 Yamaha's Chad Reed defied chest and back pain to score 12th position in Detroit for the fourteenth round of the 2008 Monster Energy AMA Supercross championship last weekend. The Australian crashed heavily in practice and had to visit hospital prior to being released to take his slot in the gate for the main event at Ford Field.
Reed used his AMA provisional 'joker' (that enables riders in the top ten of the standings to miss one qualification and still be eligible to compete) after his accident that saw a diagnosis of a fractured scapula (shoulder blade), and likely some lung bruising among other small ailments. The 25-year-old was coughing up blood at one point but was determined not to miss the race.
Gingerly placing his YZ450F - on which he has taken eight victories this season - into the gate, further misfortune struck the series leader when he went down with a gaggle of other riders on the first corner. From that moment Reed looked to salvage what he could by working his way through the pack to claim 12th and lose just 11 points to main title rival Kevin Windham.
"I just put my head down and went for it; I tried to be the best lapper out there," Reed commented. "I can't believe I crashed in the first turn. That's unbelievable. To feel the way I do, crash in the first turn and come back to 12th, this is a win right here. If we're standing in Vegas and we're the champions, this is the one that got it done."
"I've been here before," he added. "With a 27-point lead, I'm not going to just stand and watch it go. I've always been able to go out there and grit my teeth, but this was possibly the worst race of my life. I spent four hours in the hospital, and I was scared for my life, to be honest. I've never coughed up so much blood in all my life. I'm happy to be here."
Reed now holds an advantage of 16 points over Windham. There will be precious little time for the former champion to recover however with the final three rounds in St Louis, Seattle and Las Vegas taking place in the next three weeks.
It is unlikely that AMA Motocross champion Grant Langston will make a return to supercross before the end of the season. The South African had a retinal problem that has kept him on the sidelines for most of the campaign and he is now looking towards a defence of his outdoor crown next month.
Josh Hill was fourth and is the second highest Yamaha rider in the standings. The Detroit event was only the fourth race from fourteen in which a YZ450F has not made the top three.
In the Lites division Ryan Morais was able to obtain his best finish of the year so far with second place.
Team Suzuki
IZZI RACES TO 4TH PLACE IN DETROIT
 Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing's Nico Izzi celebrated an impressive fourth-place finish in front of his home crowd at Saturday night's AMA Supercross Lites race at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
The St. Clair, Michigan, native started the night by nabbing a second-place finish in his heat race and then a fourth-place result in the 15-lap main. Izzi's performance puts the young rider in third-place overall in the championship points chase.
In the premier class, Rockstar Makita Suzuki's David Vuillemin returned to racing after missing last week's event due to injury and put in a strong ride. The Frenchman actually designed the Detroit track on which he finished third in his heat race and then seventh in the 20-lap main event.
Nico Izzi:
"The weekend started out great. From the beginning, I was really happy with my practice times, more so than at any other race this year. I felt comfortable on the track - everything just felt right. In my heat race, I got a great start on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki RM-Z250. It was the first holeshot I've pulled this year. Even though I got passed and finished second, I felt good and I was happy with the way I was riding. In the main, I got another good start and was running in third place. I stayed there for several laps and then I got into second place and kept that pace for a lot of the race. But then I got a little fatigued and the track was really rutted, so I backed it down a bit because I didn't want to crash. I wanted to get as many points as possible and maybe move up in the overall standings, which is what we did."
David Vuillemin:
"The day went well in that I had the sixth-fastest time in practice on my Rockstar Makita Suzuki RM-Z450. After that, I got a great holeshot in my heat race and ended up finishing in third place. Then in the main event, I finished in seventh place. I'm happy with this considering that I hadn't ridden in 10 days because of my crash during practice before the Dallas race. On top of that, I spent three days in France getting my lower back adjusted. So it was a good weekend for us."
Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing will race next at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri, on Saturday, April 19th.
KTM Racing
US Supercross Series
MDK KTM Factory rider Nick Wey had some difficulties in his heat race causing him to pull off.
His mechanic, Jamie Ellis, quickly went to work to solve the problem earning the top tech award for the night by helping Wey return in time for the LCQ where he grabbed the holeshot and the win to transfer into the main event.
In the main, Wey got a poor start due largely to his outside gate position and had to work his way up through the riders. He eventually charged up to 12th position when on the last lap he got tangled with Paul Carpenter and Jake Marsack in a crash that sent all three riders to the ground. Wey got up first and salvaged 17th for the night.
US Supercross Lites East Series
MDK KTM Lites Team rider Matt Goerke had the best ride of his season picking up 5th place in the Lites main event at Ford Field.
Goerke's night started well when he qualified 3rd in his heat to transfer to the main. His team-mate Ryan Sipes repeated that finish qualifying 3rd in his heat as well. MDK KTM Factory rider Martin Davalos had a big crash in the second heat and was sent to the LCQ where he easily finished in the top two to qualify into the main show.
In the main event, Sipes and Davalos each had a good jump and were out front early while Goerke started around 10th. Davalos crashed early on when he collided with another rider. He eventually remounted only to crash again a lap later through the treacherous whoop section. The second crash banged him up bad enough that he chose to pull out of the event.
Meanwhile Sipes was running in 6th position and looking to break into the top five when the track got the best of him and he went over the bars on a step-up step-off jump. Sipes sat on the side of the track for a lap making sure that he was okay to ride and then got back on his bike and finished 18th for the night after coming from nearly two laps down.
Out front, Goerke was putting in a solid ride. By lap 6 he had moved into 7th position. On the last lap he passed Tyler Bowers for the 5th spot. Goerke's finish marked his best finish this season and gave the MDK KTM Lites Team a top five overall for the night.
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