Australian motocross and supercross legend Chad Reed has hailed his one-off return to the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship as a success on all levels after he impressed at Ironman’s final round on Saturday.

In a guest role with Autotrader Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing, Reed charged to a highly-respectable 5-8 scorecard, crediting him eighth overall in his first outdoors appearance since 2015.

At 36 years of age and with a Pro Motocross crown to his name, the New South Wales native says the current specification Suzuki RM-Z450 instantly changed his perception of motocross, and paired with a month of reaching an adequate level of fitness, it allowed him to excel in the challenging conditions that the weekend provided.

“My immediate feeling on the Suzuki RM-Z450 brought back so many positive feelings – it instantly changed my thoughts on motocross,” Reed explained. “I have been working on my off-bike strength and fitness over the past month, so I knew I could handle some suffering.

“Riding fitness is so unique to our sport, so I was really quite nervous and unsure in that area. Not having raced a national in three years, my number one goal was to smile and enjoy a day of racing my dirt bike for one of the best teams in the paddock. The day was a success on all levels.”

Team manager Jeremy Albrecht praised Reed’s efforts, revealing he exceeded expectations and labelled him the highlight of the round after the squad’s 250 riders failed to qualify.

“Chad Reed was the highlight of the weekend,” said Albrecht. “It was cool to have him under the tent – he had a great attitude and loved the Suzuki RM-Z450. He did what we were hoping for – the fifth place in the first moto was better than I expected.”

It’s understood the factory Suzuki team will host an extensive supercross test at the JGRMX test track in North Carolina next month that will see all of Suzuki’s engineers in attendance, however it hasn’t officially been confirmed if Reed will participate despite testing with the outfit over the past two weeks.

It was also revealed earlier this month that the number 22 would be denied of one more opportunity to represent Team Australia at the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations (MXoN) at RedBud this year, which he expressed severe disappointment in the decision to be overlooked.