By Eric Johnson

9,545 miles. That¹s the amount of distance Daniel Reardon has traveled to
race in the past week. Last Saturday in Perth, Australia ‹ one of the most
isolated metropolitan areas on Earth (the closest city to it with over 1
million people being Adelaide, South Australia a mere 1,307 miles away)
Reardon placed second to countryman Chad Reed in the opening round of
premier Australian-based Super X series.

Six days later and in less than 24 hours, Reardon will be in Las Vegas, Nevada to compete in the 2008 U.S. Open. A hell of a slog, but one the friendly 22 year-old Australian ex-pat has no problem with. Now based in California and a consistent top 10 finisher in both the 2008 AMA West Region Supercross and AMA Motocross Lites National Championship tours, the GEICO Powersports Honda No Fear-backed Reardon is a racer at heart, and has no designs on taking any sort of major break now that the off-season has begun. In fact, shortly after the U.S. Open, Reardon will get back on another 747 and fly right back to his homeland to line up for the second round of the Super X series next Saturday
in The City of Churches: Adelaide, Australia.

Today, before he prepared to get on the 15 North towards Sin City, we caught up with the man-in-a-suitcase globetrotter.

Dan, so you’ve been jet-setting it, huh? If I have it right, you’re just
back from Australia?
Yeah, I’ve been doing a bit of flying. That place definitely isn¹t just
around the corner. As far as flying all over, yeah, I have plenty more to
do, too.

When did you get back to California?
I got home on Monday.

Just how was the opening round of the Australian Supercross Championship?
It was actually good. Australia has definitely stepped it up. Everything was
really good. The track was really awesome. Just everything was really good,
actually. The weather wasn¹t the best. It was raining and cold and all the
rest of it, but the preparation was good. It was fu going to Perth and that
and I head back to Australia after the U.S. Open.

Perth is way out in the FAR west of Australia, isn’t it?
Yes! Nobody even goes to Perth. When we went to the airport and all the
rental cars were gone, I asked the lady, “Who even comes here? Why do you
even have any rental cars here?” It is definitely way out of the way.

Was the track pretty comparable to a U.S. supercross track?
It was. It actually was. Normally, there is a pretty big difference between
the tracks there and the tracks here, but it was pretty close because [Mark]
Barnett built the track. He had all the machines and everything he needed to
do and the track was awesome.

How as the atmosphere in the pits and during the period of time leading up
to the race? I understand the series is new and may not yet rival what goes
on here in America, but was it good? Was there a good vibe at the event?
It was good. It actually was better than what it has normally been. I think
we got maybe 13,000 people at the race. It was god. The crowd was into it,
for sure. I think it’s only getting better. I think the other rounds that
will come later like Sydney and Brisbane. I think will pull bigger
crowds, for sure. I think it was all really good. I think by the end of the
series quite a bit of exposure will come from it.

Were a number of people you ran into asking you to compare what was going on there to the racing America?
Yeah, yeah, for a lot of people, that was one of their number one questions:
How was America. A lot of people are interested in finding out what it is
actually like over here, so that conversation was definitely flying around
the it¹s a lot.

You finished second in the 20-lap main event to Chad Reed. How did you ride? Did you feel good?
No! (Laughter) To tell you the truth, I didn¹t feel good at all. I didn¹t
feel comfortable even with practice and stuff. I don’t know. My comfort
level definitely was not there. For sure I finished second, but I was
actually disappointed with the end result. Second or whatever is a result,
but it was more of a big gap between my and Reedy and that was not what I
expected. I’m going t try and turn things around a little bit at the next
one. I just put it down to my comfort level. I just didn¹t feel good pretty
much all weekend. That’s fine. The weekend is over and I’m just looking
forward to this U.S. Open.

Have you been able to put much time in on your new bike here in California?
I haven’t had a whole lot of time on it, no. You know I feel like I adapted
to it pretty quick. I rode it for about a week before I went to Australia
and I rode once this week and that¹s about it. So, I haven¹t had a heap of
time on it, but I feel like I¹ve had enough time on it to where I feel
comfortable and where we have a pretty good set-up ready to go this weekend.

You competed in the U.S. Open last year and placed seventh overall. What did you think of the event, race, the track, and the hotel?
It was good. That was actually the first time I went to Vegas, too, so the
whole thing was kind of exciting. The first night I crashed and on the
second night I finished fourth and it was a cool experience. The track,
obviously, was obviously a little different to what we¹re used to over here,
but it was kind of similar to what the races were like back in Australia a
couple of years ago. It was an awesome event. It¹s that one-off race that I
think everyone enjoys doing and going for it. I¹m really looking forward to
it.

Now, you¹ll be the only member of the GEICO Powersports Honda team competing at the U.S. Open, correct?
Yeah, I¹ll be in the semi all by myself.

Are you surprised other members of the team are not riding it?
Well, I don¹t know. The off-season over here is so big you might as well do
something. What a perfect time to go to Vegas and have a race there. I think
it¹s going to be a lot of fun. I think it really will be. They put a great
show on last year.

As far as the competition goes this weekend, how did Chad Reed look on the Suzuki in Australia?
Chad looked good. Yeah, he definitely did. He looks like he is comfortable
with that bike for sure. You have Chad on the Suzuki and you have James on
the Yamaha, the depth of talent that will be there is actually pretty deep
so it should be good.

What’s your goal for the weekend?
Uhm, my goal? Nobody goes to race for second place, obviously. I think that,
truthfully, if everything goes well, I can maybe pull a podium out of it. A
lot of people might look at me and think, ³Are you serious?² But I think
that if everything goes well, I think I can do it. Hopefully, things do go
my way. I think I¹ve been riding well on the 450. We¹ll see what happens.
I¹ll know if I rode well or not.

You rode the 450 in Australia and you¹ll ride the 450 this weekend?
Yeah.

Do you know what you’ll be riding in 2009 yet?
No, I don¹t.

And after this weekend, it’s right back to Australia?
Yeah, I leave Monday and get to Australia on Monday. I¹ll then leave my
hometown of Brisbane and fly to Adelaide for the next round. So my whole
next week¹s schedule is pretty much in a plane.

Wow… Is that going to be a little tough?
Uhm, I don¹t knowŠ I think I should be fine. I might be a little lagged or
whatever, but I think IŒll be fine. I¹m in cattle class on the plane, but
I¹ll just try and snooze.

Okay Dan, well best of luck in Las Vegas and we¹ll see you over there
Tomorrow!

All right and thank you. See you in Las Vegas.