Another Sixth for Seely at Toronto Supercross

Although Team Honda HRC’s Cole Seely turned in a respectable sixth-place finish at the Canadian round of the AMA Supercross series, the young Californian had hoped for a better result. Following a less-than-desirable start aboard his CRF450R, Seely quickly moved into seventh on the opening lap. He maintained that position for a majority of the race, before making the pass into sixth on lap 12, which is where he finished.

NOTES

• With the paddock closed to the public due to limited space, Team Honda HRC’s Cole Seely ventured inside the Rogers Center concourse between practices to sign autographs at the Honda Canada booth. He spent 30 minutes along side fellow Canadian Red Riders Colton Facciotti, Dylan Wright and Jean-Christophe Bujold taking pictures and meeting enthusiastic race fans.
• Following the day’s two qualifying sessions, Seely found himself eighth fastest with a 57.564 time, which was secured during the second practice.
• In heat 1, Seely struggled to get off the line, rounding the first turn in 10^th. Early in the race, the Californian made a mistake, going down and losing a few positions. By the checkered flag, Seely had worked his way up to seventh, forcing him to qualify through the semi. Despite not transferring directly to the main, Seely showed notable speed, logging the third-fastest time of the race with a 47.609 lap.
• It was a successful night for GEICO Honda’s Christian Craig as he secured his first podium finish of the season with a solid third place finish. Craig got off the line to a top five start, working his way up to fourth position. Towards the end of the 15-minute plus one-lap main event, Craig took advantage of another rider’s mistake to take over the final podium position.
• While Seely and Team Honda HRC were battling the frigid temperatures in Toronto, Team HRC’s Time Gjaser and Evgeny Bobryshev were battling through brutal track conditions at round two of the MXGP series in Indonesia. With a sludge-covered track, organizers were forced to cancel the final main event, using race 1 results for the overall classification. Gjaser rode his CRF450RW to seventh, while Bobryshev took home ninth, respectively.
• This weekend, Team Honda HRC will be at Daytona Beach, Florida, for the 46^th annual Daytona Supercross by Honda. On Friday, Seely, fill-in Jeremy Martin and the GEICO Honda 250 effort will take part in press day before heading to RC Hill Honda in DeLand for a pre-supercross party and autograph session. 

THE FOCUS: Going International with Team Honda HRC

The Toronto Supercross marks the only international stop on the AMA Supercross circuit, and although it may seem like just another race to most fans, there is a lot of additional behind-the-scenes work that goes in to ensuring that Team Honda HRC is on the gate. In order to cross the Canadian border, the team is required to submit a manifesto well in advance, claiming everything that is brought across within the truck. Because of this, the team opts to bring only it’s technical truck across, and not the hospitality struck. By employing some creativity, the entire team and Seely are able to work out of one area.

“Bringing the rigs across the border to Toronto is definitely more complicated than any other race, which is why our team chooses to only bring one semi,” explained Mike Spraker, tech truck driver for Team Honda HRC. “We have to do a complete inventory of our entire trailer including everything from rugs, paper towels, chairs, nuts, bolts, engines and everything in between. We also have to document frame and serial numbers, as well as anything with an ID number. We have to submit this information about 8 weeks in advance. Then normally about three to five days before we cross the border we get verification paperwork, which tells our entry point [to the country], crossing dates and a crossing time, which we have to be within a few hours from. Only the people or persons within the vehicle that are registered on the manifest paperwork are able to drive into and out of Canada.”

Press contact:

Mandie Fonteyn // Dispatch Communications // mandie@dispatchco.com // +1 (951) 537-0454