Words: Misty Walton

Fresh from returning from the US, we caught up with CDR Yamaha’s Dan Reardon to talk round six, international ambitions, and of course we asked how the bromance with teammate Kade Mosig was going!

Image: Jeff Crow.

Firstly, welcome back to Australia! Tell us about America?

At first the trip came together quite late. It was sort of like a week and a half before I left that I thought it would be a good chance to go over there, obviously having the break here. It gives us the chance to ride something new and fresh, and you know it gets a bit old here going to the same places day in, day out. For someone like myself, it was easy to go over there – I have a house, my family and having lived there before it does make it easy. I think trips like this are important because it’s the motocross season in America too, so it gives us a chance to sort of elevate our game too. You have no choice but to ride fast over there. Every day there is always someone quicker or riding faster than you so all in all it was a good trip for me!

Do you think the trip over there is going to have a significant impact on your results over the next five rounds?

Yeah for sure, that’s why I went there. I mean it is only three weeks and I’ve heard people say ‘oh you’ve been in America for three weeks and you think you’re going to come back 10 seconds a lap faster’, but it doesn’t work like that. The trip was worthwhile though in more ways that one, so I think the remainder of the MX Nationals should be strong, and stronger than the first half that’s for sure.

With the couple of DNF’s you’ve had, you’re not really in contention for the championship. What’s the goal from now to round 10?

The goal for me is to just get the best results that I can. I want to get some race wins, overalls and some podiums and really set myself up for next year. There’s a lot of things I can still do. You know it’s been a funny year for me this year, I’ve actually never had a season like this one in my whole racing career. It does sort of suck you know, when you make a comeback you want to do as best you can and although I’m doing better than I anticipated, those DNFs do hurt a bit. When you look at those DNFs, they’re a big chuck of points and you start playing the woulda, shoulda, coulda card, and there is a fair amount of points that I have missed out on. At the end of the day, those 70 points would put me in second place. Momentum is the part of DNFs that can really be affected. When you’re doing all the right things, it’s easy to keep doing the right things. This year was always going to be a tough year coming back, and yes we aren’t in the points, but I’ve had a lot of fun and now it’s about salvaging what we can.

Raymond Terrace must be a pretty special place for you as it sort of launched your career internationally after racing Chad Reed. What’s it like heading back there now?

Look I know I have had good results at Raymond Terrace and, I mean, to be honest I’ve had some good results in a lot of places. Raymond Terrace does sort of hold that special memory though from racing Chad there. But to be fair, that was Chad coming back into our environment. So I am looking forward to going back there this weekend – I’m not sure how much the track has changed since I last raced there, but I do know the conditions. We’ve made some good changes to the bike and with all of the history I’ve had there, I’m looking forward to it, put it that way!

Image: Jeff Crow.

You’ve been pretty open about your desire to race in the US in 2016. Do you think that Raymond Terrace could once again be an event that will get you your next big break?

No I don’t think so [laughs]. The reason that big break came for me was when Chad raced here, he was a household name over there. When they realised I could be somewhat competitive with him, then they thought well hang on a second, maybe this could work. You know Americans and the American industry, to tell you the truth, they don’t really look into Australia. They care about the American series and that’s it – very few of them will look at what is happening over here and look at results and see Australia as a place for scouting. So that was a rare experience to have, but in talking about next year I’m not sure what it holds for me. For the time I have left, whether it be four years or five or whatever it is, I want to make sure that I make the right decisions. I want to be a part of a good strong team wherever I’m racing and a team where I can potentially see out my career. The US is a long shot and although my relationships are strong with certain people, it is tough. I won’t count anything out at this point in my career though, so we’ll see what comes from it.

One more quick question, the Kade situation – that all tidied up now?

Yeah it’s tidied up; it’s got to be tidied up. We don’t have any choice but to get along. Incidents happen and unfortunately that’s just racing. Someone is always on the bad end and that’s just the way it goes. It is tidied up and we have to go racing. We have to gear up together and spend a lot of time together and it would be an uncomfortable situation if things weren’t perfect. We’re all good [laughs].

Thanks for the chat Dan, see you this weekend!

Awesome, see you there!