Supercross riders Dan Reardon and Nathan Crawford are all revved up for the start of the Australian Supercross Championship at Jimboomba X Stadium next month.
Both riders will compete in the SX1 division on September 23 with veteran rider Reardon set to be a crowd favourite, having grown up in nearby Logan Village, while Crawford will be stepping up to the 450cc class for the first time.
Both Reardon and Crawford said one of the keys to victory in Supercross, which can see riders reaching speeds of up to 80kms an hour on straights before negotiating jumps and turns, is consistency in each lap.
“Supercross is a fairly technical sport so it’s just managing emotions and what goes on in a race because your heart rate gets so high when you race Supercross,” Reardon said.
"People say things like good starts and those types of things which are really important.
“But when you’re in the race mode or race conditions you’ve got to be able to manage your emotions; especially when your out in front and just tick off nice clean laps every single lap.”
“Supercross is super technical, you need good starts and no silly mistakes and a solid 20 laps and usually you should be pretty right from there,” Crawford said.
With Jimboomba also hosting the final round of the championship on November 18, Reardon said both rounds in Jimboomba will be important to any rider’s championship aspirations, including his own.
“It’s only a short championship, we only get six rounds, so it’s very important that each round is as good as it possibly can be, Jimboomba being number one so it’s very important that things go well here,” he said.
Both riders said Jimboomba is a popular event among the riders in the championship.
“To have two events here just creates a great vibe for the whole series and we look forward to coming here a lot,” Crawford said.
“Jimboomba is always like a favourite stop throughout the series, I know Scotty (organiser Scott Bannan) puts a lot of effort in and he listens to the riders, and the athletes,” Reardon said.
“That is important because if everything runs smoothly for us it’ll run smoothly for everyone else involved.”
Now based on the Gold Coast Reardon said racing at Jimboomba X Stadium, where he tasted victory in 2015, is always special due to Jimboomba’s close proximity to where he was raised.
“I would say it’s my home town area, you don’t really have a home track in Supercross because the dirt normally gets brought in and it’s only a temporary race as such; but it is nice to be somewhat close to home and where I used to live,” he said.
Next month will be Crawford’s third time racing at Jimboomba X Stadium but his first in the SX1 class, and he said he can’t wait for the starting gates to drop for the first heat.
“I raced the last two years here, unfortunately in the first year I got injured but Scotty puts on a great event and I can’t wait for this year’s Jimboomba event to come around,” he said.
“There is so many top guys in this class, it’s actually my first year in the SX1 so there’s guys like Daniel Reardon and also there is imports that come from America and there is other good Australians like Kade Mosig and others.
“It’s going to be a great event.”
Reardon will be returning to the track after a short layoff after finishing the American Supercross season.
“We only just got back from the States about 10 weeks ago so I have had a little bit of an off-season which was well overdue but I’m looking forward to the first round,” he said.