Yamaha's Chad Reed is poised to clinch his first premier-class AMA Supercross championship this Saturday in Salt Lake City's, the penultimate round of the 16-race series.
The 22-year-old Australian needs only to score 11th or better in Utah to wrap up the 2004 championship, with the only other rider that can deny him - Factory Connection Honda's Kevin Windham - 40 points behind Reed heading into this weekend.
Also in Reed's favour is that he will arrive at the Rice-Eccles Stadium straight from his tenth victory of the year last weekend in Texas, and is also the defending winner of the Salt Lake City Supercross: He took victory last year after he and 2003 champ Ricky Carmichael came together hard, with Carmichael hitting the ground.
Reed pushed Ricky all the way to the final event of the 2003 season by winning the final six rounds. This year Carmichael sat out the AMA Supercross campaign after knee surgery in the off-season. In RC's absence, Windham has stepped up as Honda's top rider, winning three rounds this year and missing the podium just three times.
While he concedes the battle for the championship is realistically over, Windham would still like to finish out the season on a winning note. Salt Lake may present an opportunity for Windham since Reed has said that clinching the championship would be his main focus in the final two rounds. This will be Windham's first appearance in Salt Lake since 2001, when he finished seventh.
If Reed clinches the series he would become the first Australian to win the prestigious title - and the first foreigner since France's Jean-Michel Bayle won the 1991 AMA Supercross crown. Reed is already assured a place in AMA record books after becoming only the third rider in history to earn a ten-win season, joining Ricky Carmichael and Jeremy McGrath.
Saturday's event will also feature the final round of the 2004 AMA 125 West Supercross Series. Ivan Tedesco wrapped up the title last weekend with a victory in Dallas, but instead of taking it easy in Salt Lake, Tedesco has warned that having the championship already clinched will allow him to ride even harder this weekend.
