Ryan Villopoto may have wrapped up his fourth consecutive Monster Energy Supercross title this year, however a decade earlier it was Chad Reed who won his first of two career American Supercross Championships.

In his second full season of American Supercross in the premier class during 2004, Reed rode his factory Yamaha YZ250 to a convincing victory in the title from Kevin Windham and Mike Larocco. At 22 years of age, Reed had realised his lifelong dream of being the world’s best supercross racer.

One year earlier, as a rookie Reed had fallen just seven points short of the title behind Ricky Carmichael after winning the last six races of the season. With Carmichael benched through injury for 2004, the title was suddenly Reed’s to lose.

“2004 was an amazing year – I had a really, really solid year,” Reed reflected late in his career. “I came off winning a lot of races in my rookie year and I just put so much effort into my rookie year in 2004.

“I remember that year the bike was just unbelievably amazing, I was on the podium every weekend and just won a lot of races. Naturally I just felt like it was my title to lose. I made very few mistakes all year long.

“It was my first [250] title in the US, a title that I’d always wanted to win and it was amazing. I had a lot of fun.”

As he said, Reed claimed podium results at all 16 rounds of the series, beginning with his second consecutive victory at Anaheim 1 at Angel Stadium. In total he won 10 races, scored five seconds and claimed a single third.

Reed would go on to capture a second title in 2008 aboard a YZ450F in the four-stroke era, and amazingly, is still winning races to this day with his very own TwoTwo Motorsports program. Australia’s GOAT? No doubt!