Daniel Reardon reports after Super X event at Townsville
After taking a pretty big hit in Wollongong, I just spent most of last week not doing a whole lot.
So, come first practice in Townsville, I was a little shady and I was definitely hurting a little bit as well. I did what I could and then in second practice I got into a rhythm a little bit more and felt comfortable enough to do some racing.
It was certainly hot up in Townsville, and with the humidity I haven’t seen this kind of heat in a while so it gave the body a bit of a shock, but it was alright. And then coming into the night program, some big old dark clouds started circling around. I was fortunate enough in my heat it stayed dry.
I got a really good start but Jeremy McGrath just killed me off the gate and it took me a few laps to get around him. It was a good little battle and I had a fun time out there in the dry, but the rain was definitely coming and it really poured down for a while.
It was so, so wet out there that they actually cancelled one of our races and we went straight into the “Man-on-Man” main event (I’m not so sure about their choice of name for the format, but anyway…)
In my first race, things were going well for me in the mud, but a lot of options go out the window when you only get two laps. I had a pretty strong lead in my first heat and looked good to go through to the quarter final. I don’t really even want to call it a mistake – I jumped on a table and got a bunch of wheelspin getting off. I crashed and went over the bars. I kind of hurt myself a little bit, but I got back up. I finished the race, but I missed out straight away, so my night was over.
Of course I am disappointed with everything, but I can’t dwell on it; there’s not much I can do. So I sat out in the rain and watched everyone else smash it up.
It was an interesting night – Chad didn’t win. He finished third and Marmont came away with the victory.
The race format built up a lot of drama and tension, and as a spectator it was actually kind of cool, but you know I wish I’d been up there racing instead.
I’m looking forward to the rest of this week ahead of me and racing in Brisbane on Saturday – it’s my hometown. I’m really pumped for that. Hopefully, I’ll have a solid week and come out swinging for Brisbane.
