Seeping Matter

So I haven’t seen the Las Vegas Supercross yet (I have my reasons – I know, there is really no excuse). But before I see the end, I had to comment on the pre-race interviews the SPEED channel broadcasted, because it will make my comments more genuine.

SPEED started off by highlighting a race replay from the Salt Lake City race which very clearly shows Chisholm looking back, seeing both riders racing for position, moving out of Stewart’s way, and then immediately racing Reed to impede progress.  This is not just a smoking gun; in addition, there is gunshot residue all over Chisholm’s hand and his fingerprints are on both the gun and the shell casing.

Next they shows some interviews with regard to last week’s team tactics incident.  SPEED first tried to interview Stewart for his reaction, but he declined to be interviewed.  My guess is he knows he’s not a very good liar and he knows nobody is believing his story anyway, because it is obviously not true.

Next they interviewed Team Suzuki’s team manager, Roger DeCoster, and Chad Reed himself.  DeCoster said that after seeing the replays on TV it is obvious that Chisholm intentionally tried to impede Reed’s progress, and since this is out of character for Chisholm it seems likely that he was ordered to do this by the team.  DeCoster gave no indication of any retaliation planned or resolve to stoop to the level of the L&M Racing team in order to help Reed get the title – just that it was pretty apparent what had happened.  If you saw the replay, you can’t deny what DeCoster is saying – it is pretty clear.

But the best of them all was Reed’s interview.  He began his answer by saying, “You have to find your happy place.”  I wondered what he was talking about.  Then he explained that immediately after the race was over, he was fuming mad.  But instead of losing control of his emotions, he took a few moments of time-out by himself to find his happy place.  He said after he took a moment to himself, he was really fine with it.

Understand this – it’s big.  This guy is competing for the world title, and he’s fine with it.

His words were, “The joke is on them.”  How true.  Once he found himself, he realized that he’s bigger than one race or even one championship.  It’s more important for him to compete aggressively but fairly and to be true to himself.  He wouldn’t want a championship that he wasn’t proud of.  The joke is clearly on L&M Racing and James Stewart.

Later on, when he won his heat race (I did watch some of it), SPEED asked if they could expect any team tactics or retaliation, to which Reed simply replied, “You can expect a hard-fought, clean race.”

All of this made Larry Brooks all the more stupid when they showed his interview later, when he spent all his time talking about how Team Suzuki was whining and complaining about how unfair everything was and kept trying to deflect the conversation toward how Stewart is faster.  I’ve never heard anyone deny that Stewart is fast, so I don’t get what he’s trying to defend.  I do know, however, that before Chad Reed came along, Larry Brooks was nowhere – team manager at KTM, the clear afterthought factory team of supercross.  Whoop-de-do.  Their factory guys are rejects from many of the factory support teams.  Then Reed shows up and they form L&M Racing, and Reed gives them a supercross title, after which they get rid of Reed in favor of Stewart.  Or maybe Reed realized they weren’t really good sportsmen and wanted to align himself with a more respectable team.

Larry Brooks clearly needs a lesson in gratitude.  And humility.  And sportsmanship.  And intelligence.

But no matter.  I’m proud to be a Chad Reed fan this year.  He sets a great example for my son, who watches the races with me, in many ways.  He competes aggressively but fairly.  He is a good sport, always showing respect for his competitors.  He only worries about the things that he can change.  And he doesn’t lose sight of what is most important – in this case, being true to himself and happy with the choices he makes.  If he has to give that up, like Stewart did, to win the title, I’d rather have him lose it and continue to be that kind of man.