Image: Simon Cudby.

Monster Energy/360fly/Chaparral/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Chad Reed has his sights set on consistent podium appearances at this stage of the 2016 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.

Aboard his all-new Yamaha outfit, 33-year-old Reed has clicked off two podium finishes in the opening three rounds, spending the majority of his time chasing down defending champion Ryan Dungey in the process.

“Racing’s racing. You’ve got to be in it to win it, always,” Reed told Racer X this week. “I think the good guys know how to get to the front in the main event when they hand out 25 points. And that’s what Ryan’s doing really well.

“He’s obviously solid in the whoops and great in the turns. I wasn’t close enough to get a bird’s-eye view, but definitely trading lap times with him. It wasn’t like he walked away from me. He kind of just inched away, inched away.”

The Australian admits he is placing substantial amount of pressure on himself and the past few seasons of not being a constant front-runner in the 450SX class may be hindering his 2016 performances during these early stages of the year.

“I know where I’m giving it up, because I feel it,” he continued. “I don’t need to see it at this point – all day I felt it. We’re not far off. Truthfully I think it’s a lot me, having a couple of seasons of not [being] up front and not running this pace. Coming to an event where you want to be the king of the event and stand alone on nine wins, I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think this year I have a lot of pressure.”

The multi-time premier class champion wants his podium finishes to come as no surprise and has his eyes set on main event wins before the seasons end.

“It was always nice to get on the podium last week, but my feeling was as everyone was wanting to high-five, like that was going to be a once a year thing, I want to be here week in and week out,” Reed added. “So for me there was a lot of pressure on myself to perform this weekend. The goal is to be on the podium every weekend and I want the win.

“The feeling’s there, it’s just something is missing. I feel like I need to be a little better. The bike’s great, to be honest with you. I think when I ride and do the things that I’m supposed to do, it gives me all I want. So I think having a couple of rough seasons and not being there consistently, I feel that it’s on me at this point. I just need to know that this is where I belong and go get it.”

Reed currently sits second overall in the 450SX points standings, just 13 points behind Dungey following his sixth at Anaheim 1 and back-to-back runner-up placings at San Diego and Anaheim 2.