Going into the fourth round of the Aussie Motocross (Outdoor) Nationals, 21 year old Daniel Reardon had a handy lead. KX450F-mounted Reardon had in fact stamped his name all over the series so far, following on from his Pro Open Australian Supercross Series victory earlier in the year. The boy was on fire.
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Reed in Green and Gold, doing his country proud, back in his own backyard. | | |
Question was, how would he go against
Chad Reed, back in Australia for a little home-town racing? Was it going to be a repeat of the time in 2003 when Chad dropped in for the final round of the Aussie Supercross series and demolished the entire field, including the reigning champ, Jay Marmont? It seems no-one told Reardon that history was going to be repeated – and it wasn’t. Well, perhaps the only recent history that was about to be repeated was that Chad was chasing a Green Machine!
In both 30-minute motos, Chad had to fight tooth and nail to get past the Kawasaki rider and yes, he did it in the end, but it was two heats of absolute motocross bliss for the crowd. Reardon holeshotted both motos at the Barleigh Ranch circuit two hours north of Sydney (Chad’s childhood stomping ground) and kept Reed biting at his rear wheel, never more than a bike length or two behind. They swapped the lead a couple of times in the second moto and the crowd just lapped it up.
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Reed and Reardon were never much further apart than this for the first half of each moto, simply fantastic racing to watch. | | |
It’s not like the rest of the field wasn’t a star cast either, with the likes of Craig Anderson, Shane Metcalfe, Cheyne Boyd, Daryl Hurley, Luke Burkhart and many more all vying for a crack at the crown. But it was without a doubt the Chad and Daniel show and the others just simply weren’t in the same race. So, two wins for Reed, two landmark rides from Reardon, and a huge win for the race fans. Chad sure did receive a big welcome back from the crowd by the way, with the queues for autograph hounds seemingly stretching for eternity. He was the man in demand and didn’t have a minute to spare in between his outings on the track.
No matter how brightly Daniel Reardon has shone in 2007 on Oz soil, no-one probably expected him to take the battle up to Reed with quite so much gusto. Keep his name under your hat for the time being but with that display against one of the world’s best, you can bet he’ll be seen on a racetrack near you, no matter what continent you’re on.
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Daniel Reardon has blitzed the Aussie motocross and supercross scene in Australia so far in 2007 and took it right up to Reed. | | |
