TwoTwo Motorsports Honda team owner/rider Chad Reed believes his performance at Phoenix was an improvement over the Anaheim AMA Supercross opener, despite not finishing on the podium.

Reed finished fifth at Chase Field after working his way past fellow Honda riders Trey Canard and Andrew Short in the 20-lap main event, but is taking positives from the round.

“We were actually better this week to last week the results on paper just don’t show it,” Reed said. “I felt like for the most part it was positive.

“What we worked on since last round was better and we learnt some things throughout the day that were both negative and positive.

“In the main event I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time every time. Everyone I came up on was racing hard and instead of me racing hard and charging forward and putting myself in the right position I was continually in the wrong place each time.

“I felt like I rode great here and there and it was a step forward in many ways, its just the result wasn’t there.”

Earlier in the night, Reed crashed while on a charge in his heat race, forcing him to settle for seventh.

“The first four laps of my heat race was good, I went forward and was charging,” he explained. “We had an issue during testing last week which rose its head again in the heat and I lost the front.”

Reed now sits third in the championship standings seven points behind Ryan Villopoto and Phoenix winner Ryan Dungey, who are tied at the top of the standings on 45 points.

TwoTwo Motorsports will return to the test track ahead of next weekends third round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross at Los Angeles Dodger Stadium.