When Chad Reed talks, people listen. So, what better way to prepare for the upcoming World Supercross Championship than to have a chat with the two-time AMA Supercross Champion! Reedy is coming out of retirement, has ditched the “dad bod” as he calls it, and is gearing up to race the first WSX round at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales on October 8. 

We had the chance to speak at length to the motorsports legend on a Thursday morning, a little over a week before the first round. Sure enough, Reed will always let you know exactly what is on his mind. 

SKDA: Let’s start off by getting an update on your life. You’re always super busy and you even have a YouTube channel now, but for people who might not be aware of that, how's life going for you? Reed: Life is always busy because that’s how we roll! It’s funny lately, I didn’t think I was a person who enjoyed doing repetitive stuff. The one thing as a racer that you miss when you retire is the consistency. You know what you’re doing and know the schedule, the offseason starts at a certain date, you know when supercross starts at Anaheim, then you start transitioning into the outdoors, then outdoors happen, then des Nations. For years you’re on this repetitive, consistent schedule, then you retire and you allow the kids to take the ropes a little bit. They are here, there, and everywhere. One minute you’re in soccer, the next minute, BMX, and then the next minute we’re riding motorcycles. The love of motorcycles seems to be the one that is stuck on the wall. We’ve just been chasing the dream a little bit and letting them do their thing. They’ve been learning the ropes. Long story short, that’s been the gist of the past two years. It’s just been about allowing the kids to do what they want to do. We took them to a lot of the big amatuer races here in the US and they’ve seemed to really take in and love motorcycle racing. We’re kind of all in on that and now dad got the phone call to see if I was interested in doing the World Supercross Championship. 

This WSX Championship is something that I’ve known about behind closed doors for several years and I knew it was in the plans that it was going to happen. But, I didn’t necessarily think that it would be something that I’d be interested in doing because the timing. I’m post retirement and I really didn’t give it that thought process of, “Hey, I really want to race that and do it!” (Laughs) I thought it was not going to work out. Come to think of it, it’s been a perfect thing. I’ve been retired for two years and it’s been really fun to get back on the horse regularly. I get to get back to training and get rid of the dad bod. I built two Supercross tracks, one kids track, and one for myself. Just that feeling as a father riding side-by-side in my warmup sessions and you look over and see your kids flying through the air, or going through the whoops, you know just doing the same things you’re doing at a lower level. It was a thing that kind of took me by surprise. It was just really cool. They fell in love with supercross. Long story long, that’s the gist of where we’re at. It’s been a blast and really fun. 

Right, so you’re living the dad life, enjoying retirement, so what was the biggest reason for coming back to race? From the outside looking in you’ve accomplished everything in this sport, so what is pushing you to keep racing? It actually took a long time for me to agree to come back. I don’t necessarily like to use the words ‘come back’. If we're having the same conversation next year and I’m doing the whole series at a higher level, meaning 6-10 races, then you can say I’m coming back (laughs). I mean this is the opening and they are calling it their pilot season. In my mind this is like their soft opening. Next year in 2023 will be the real launch of World Supercross. I think that to participate in a two race series, which was initially supposed to be three, unfortunately the Indonesia round just didn’t work out. For me, it just feels like two offseason races and I get to go have fun. One is obviously in Australia, so that makes so much sense for me. My family and I have not been back there to see our families since Covid. So, it’s been three years since we’ve seen them from the end of 2019. We’re all excited as a family to be on tour. I feel like when I raced in my professional career, especially on the good days when my kids were there on the podiums, holding winning trophies and all of these good things they were exposed to, they didn’t have an understanding of what it was all about. Now they love motorcycles, they race themselves, and so I think the perspective on it is very different. For me, the drive to go back racing these two events was more kid driven. You know, they are excited to pack up and go on the road. They love to travel and see new places. Most of all we are going to Australia and they get to see their cousins and things like that. 

Then on a series level, I love the concept. I believe that the World needs to know Supercross at the highest level, more than just here in North America. I believe that when I watch Formula 1, or MotoGP, I classify those as the highest pinnacle of racing. Whereas our Supercross as a sport, I believe that we have a far better show than they do. When you go to Formula 1 or MotoGP you see cars or motorcycles zoom past you at a million miles per hour and then you don’t see them for another minute and a half. Supercross has been my life and I obviously love it. I just think that’s the world that we live in, on a global level. World Supercross should be one of the coolest sports in the World. Again, it doesn’t benefit me short term or long term. I just think these athletes have a ceiling and I ‘d love to see them get back to making the money that James, Ricky, and I made, you know? I think that the best and easiest way to do that is to take it to a global level. 

You touched on not being able to return to Australia until now. What do you think it’ll be like not only returning home, but to return home and racing in front of all the fans? I’ve always been very welcomed back home. They haven’t had any events since Covid. Australia was one of the countries that went full crazy, more than others. Even the Aus-X Open stuff didn’t even happen, which is where I announced my retirement. Funny enough, I announce my retirement, the World goes into lockdown, and nothing has happened since. Now here we are, basically three years later and I’m going back racing. It’s kind of a funny thing! Maybe some of the people that don’t follow me will be like, ‘Well last time I was here didn’t this guy retire?’ I’m interested to see how all of this works, but yeah! For me, I always get excited to go home to see my friends, my fans, my family, and just everybody. The way it’s worked out with the World going on lockdown for so long, Australia in particular, nothing has really happened at a Supercross level there since then. 

That is an interesting scenario there with your retirement announcement! So, now you’ll be riding with the MDK team. Can you tell us how that deal came about and how they had to talk you into coming back to ride for them? Yeah, I think I was at the Motoplayground Spring Nationals and I was having a conversation with Nick Wey about WSX. At that point the World was starting to learn that it was going to be a thing. It was funny because I initially was considering doing my own team and having four riders. It was funny, you know a lot of people start to talk about it. A lot of people don’t know my history or what goes on behind closed doors, but Nick Wey brought it up and was like, ‘MDK is wanting to get back in supercross with this WSX, do you care if I give them your number?’ I said sure, you know I’m always down for hearing people out. Mark (Kvamme) reached out to me and we covered everything from working together, to possibly doing a team together, to the timing of everything and where I was at in life. I was not necessarily wanting to throw myself one hundred percent into being a team owner and having that responsibility again. I think at that point the transition happened from wanting to have a team, to wanting to be co-team owner, to…do you know what? Going back to being an athlete isn’t so bad! That conversation went on for two or three months. I was for the most part helping them a lot in the transition of trying to figure out what to do, as well as giving them my ideas on how to do it. My name was kicked around for being a rider, but I wasn’t the main draw. I hadn’t committed to that yet. Then eventually I was like, I think this could be something fun to do, I would like to get back into shape, I would like to ride more, I’d like for my kids to see it at this level. Obviously, I’m 40 years old, I’m probably not my 22-year-old championship level guy, but we’ll see. Only time will tell how far off or how close that I am. I’d like to think that I’m closer than far off. That’s something that we will find out here next weekend. 

That’s one one the most exciting parts of the WSX lineup. You have a mix of Supercross veterans, legends, guys who are just getting their first shot at a ride, and then Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen are showing up too. It’s a blend of riders that we’re not accustomed to seeing as much.It’s a different blend for sure. In life people are so quick to kick people and not allow people to thrive, grow, and learn. I think a lot of people feel threatened by this series. So, you hear all the different things. Obviously there are a lot of people, myself included, coming out of retirement to do this. I see a lot of this stuff where people are like, ‘Oh, that’s just the senior tour,” and I laugh at that! For me, the senior people are the smart people. They’ve been through this before. I think a lot of these guys coming out of retirement and supporting this Championship are people that have been in this sport a very long time. They’ve won races at the highest level and they believe in Supercross at a World level. I think we are all coming out of retirement because we believe in the dream that SX should be a global sport. It’s worth coming out of retirement for that. It’s not money driven at all. It’s for the love of the sport. I’ve been surprised and not surprised. I knew there would be a lot of pushback. There would be a lot of people not wanting to embrace the change, but I think this has surpassed everything that I thought possible. I think how this thing plays out will be very interesting to be honest with you. 

Both of the classes have so much talent in them and it’s going to be a good show no matter what. Some guys are stepping down into the SX2 class as well. Yeah, in the long term it gives a lot of people an opportunity. The AMA Supercross Series has lower levels. It has the factory riders, then your second tier of riders, then the third tier of privateers. This WSX is not targeting that setup. They are taking the Formula 1 and MotoGP route where they are only taking the top twenty in the World. I don’t know the feeling because I’m not a Formula 1 driver. To be able to claim that, ‘I’m a Formula 1 driver,’ then I am ONE of twenty riders in the World that gets to say that. I think that’s pretty cool. It’s the same thing when this thing is up and running. I’m a WSX rider. I’m one of twenty WSX class riders and I think that’s a special thing to hold onto. If we really want to break this thing down, our system in the USA is so broken, that a guy like Colt Nichols or a Justin Cooper doesn’t have a ride. Cooper is probably riding a wave of feeling like one of the best guys in the World because they just won the Motocross des Nations. So, here’s the guy you’re all cheering on and you want the best for this guy. Well, guess what? The American system just screwed the guy and he doesn’t have a SX job. So, this is where I think it roughs up the feathers. I think for the good of the sport, when I take emotion and personal relationships out of it. I think at the end of the day, it’s the athletes who win from this thing.That’s what excites me. When I take my personal feelings aside for an individual and my friendships with the Feld Entertainment people and the MX Sports people because those are the ones that will be most affected by this. You take that aside and it’s the athletes that grow because of what WSX is doing. 

Okay, so you’re Chad Reed, you want to do well for yourself. What do you expect out of yourself and what will you be happy with results wise at the end of these two races? Publicly that’s hard to answer. I guess the best way to say it is that I am Chad Reed, and I haven’t changed. Yes, as far as my perspective on life, being 40 years old, and retired for two years, I do see and view things differently. As far as my competitive self I haven't changed and I’m okay with that. You know, I was that guy for a reason and so for me I hope to be competitive. Being competitive means being towards the front, getting good starts, and being a part of the race. It’s being able to go how I think I can go. At this point I set goals within my training program of things I wanted to be better at. I feel like I’ve checked all of those boxes. The good and bad that comes with that at this point is that I need to go and do gate drops. I feel like I’ve done what I’ve set out to do without being at that competitive level the past two years. I think that the only way that I can check off the next box is by dropping the gate to see if I’ve done the work that I felt that was needed. Or, if the last two years I got really slow! (laughs) I guess we will see! 

The three main event format could play in your favor. You’re a good starter and you could throw down some sprint laps. Yeah, it goes eight laps, five minute break, eight laps, five minute break, twelve laps. I believe this is going to catch some people off guard. I was involved in Super X in 2009-2011 and I was a co-promoter of Australian Supercross. My partner at the time was the one who came up with that system. This is not a new system for me, I have been around it, and Australian SX has used it since then. As a racer there are things that I love and hate about it. As a fan and sitting in the stands watching it I think it’s really cool and at the end of the day I think that’s what we’re trying to do. To create a better fan appeal to WSX. I think that the athletes are going to be surprised by that breakdown of the laps. It’s considerably harder than it seems. You think that it’s only eight laps at a time, but that five minute break goes really fast. You’re sweating and trying to catch your breath. That’s 28 laps and I think people are going to be surprised at how challenging that is.