Posted: Friday, 12th October, 2007 : 2:43 PM - - 14,529 Reads

Share|

	Daniel Reardon and his Red ride. Photo:Craig Wasley

Reardon riding for the Sobe/No Fear/Samsung/ Honda team will make his debut ride on US soil after arriving in America 7 weeks ago , he will then contest the AMA SX and MX events in 2008.

After wrapping up the 2007 SX and MX championships in Australia, Reardon headed to the US to settle into the team environment, get familiar with the new bike and adapt to the American lifestyle.

"Adapting to the US lifestyle has been the biggest challenge" said Reardon. "Racing is racing and different bikes and different tracks is part of it, but having to adapt to a different country has been the challenge.

Dan looked comfortable at the wheel of his shiny, big, black pick-up truck, which he and his crew patriotically maintain that "it's a ute", when I caught up with him earlier in the week.

I joined Dan at a couple of test tracks including the Honda factory test track in the local Southern California area where he finalised some last minute testing and practice before he heads towards Las Vegas.

"I've adjusted to the Honda no problems".

"You have to ride the 250's a bit different to the the big bikes, you can get a bit lazy on the 450's but the Honda 250F is great and is working well"

Dan has surrounded himself in the US with some familiar faces to help with the personal adjustment and to keep things close to as they were with his successful Aussie racing season.

	Getting into the swing of it in the Californian heat. Photo:Craig Wasley

Andy Cunningham has been Dan's personal trainer and mentor for the last 6 years and arrived 5 weeks ago and had Dan into the gym that same afternoon.

"I have modified Dan's training programme in the last few weeks" said Cunningham.

"I had to ensure Dan was keeping his fitness up but had to rest him a little to make sure that he peaks for the Vegas race.

"We changed when we trained off the bike in the last week as we needed to get his body ready to race into the evenings on both nights as the main event starts close to 10pm.

Joining Dan this week was long term family friend and US manager Greg Kowplos.

Greg played an big part in putting the US package together for Dan.

"I looked at a lot of teams in trying to put a deal together for Dan's US race programme" said Kowplos.

"Everyone one was happy that Dan and Honda got together".

"The Honda team fitted with our family style environment and Honda was impressed with the support mechanism that Dan had around him".

"We are ready to race and everything is in place, just a couple of final sponsors need to be secured to cap things off"

Rounding off Dan's Aussie invasion is Mike Ward.

	Getting into the swing of it in the Californian heat. Photo:Craig Wasley

Wardy came over with Dan to help him settle in and is in charge of the preparation of the practice bike and keeping Dan on the gas at the practice sessions.

Dan's father and a close group of friends have also made the trip to the race to give him that extra bit of support.

In asking Dan what his expectations were for the Vegas race, it didn't take him any time to answer.

"Top 3 would be great but I'm open minded".

"I am treating this as a warm up race to settle in but don't you worry, I'll be hanging it out"

Keep an eye on Dan's website DanReardon.com as they hope to be able to keep it updated to allow the Aussie fans to keep track of how things are going with his 2008 season.

Listen to the race live via the net by visiting the US Open webpage ussx.com

Business and sponsor enquiries can be directed to Dan's US manager Greg Kowplos via e-mail gkowplos@hotmail.com

Good luck Dan and I'm sure that all your Aussie fans are behind you and keen to see you do well.

Main Photo: Dan at practice during the week
Photo: Craig Wasley

Share|