Yamaha SX Race Report: Anaheim III -ozzy go-

2008 AMA Supercross Round 5 | February 2, 2008 | Anaheim, CA
For the first time in his career, L&M Racing’s Chad Reed has swept all three
Anaheim Supercross races in a single year, winning Anaheim III convincingly at
California’s Angel Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 2. He now leads the championship
by a comfortable 26-point margin over Kevin Windham. Meanwhile, Yamaha of
Troy’s Jason Lawrence claimed his second consecutive win in Supercross Lites,
and has closed to within eight points of Ryan Dungey in the class standings.

Supercross... Reed left no doubt about his command of the Supercross class
this year. He was fastest in practice, won his heat race over teammate Nathan
Ramsey, and grabbed the holeshot in the 20-lap main event. The first half of
the race was particularly exciting as Windham, along with Davi Millsaps and Tim
Ferry, battled right behind Reed. But as the laps stacked up the YZ450F rider
put his conditioning to work and built up a 4.6-second margin of victory. “In ‘04
I came so close to ‘three- peating,’” Reed said later. “After last weekend I set
some goals for myself and winning this third Anaheim was one of them.”

Supercross Lites... Lawrence turned in a near identical performance in the
Lites class. He was second fastest in practice and second in his heat race, then
got to the first corner of the 15-lap final second behind Austin Stroupe. But the
YZ250F rider jetted by Stroupe just a few corners into the race and led every
lap to earn his second career (and second consecutive) Lites victory. “It’s great
to get two wins,” he enthused afterwards. “But I hope we're going to be talking
five or six weeks in a row before the season’s over!”

While the evening was topnotch for Reed and Lawrence, others in the Yamaha
camp suffered. AMA Motocross champion Grant Langston withdrew during
practice as a fluid buildup in one eye blurred his vision, and Broc Hepler
crashed in practice and broke his thumb. “It was disappointing to have Grant
out for the night and I hope he'll be back shortly,” offered Yamaha Supercross
manager Jim Perry. “It was also a big blow to have Broc injured and hopefully
he’ll make a speedy recovery.” yamaha-motor.com