Top-Five Finish for Canard in Santa Clara

With teammate Cole Seely sidelined due to injuries sustained in a practice crash last week, Trey Canard was the sole Team Honda HRC rider at round 12 in Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium. After getting off to a mid-pack start and charging though the field, Canard rode to a fifth-place finish in the 20-lap main event. Meanwhile, fellow Red Rider Justin Bogle, of GEICO Honda, led in the race’s early going and eventually scored a sixth-place result, his best of the season so far.

NOTES

• Two days before the Santa Clara race, Cole Seely suffered a hard crash while practicing at Southern California’s Milestone MX and chipped off a piece of his C7 vertebra. Seely didn’t travel to Santa Clara, and although his prognosis is not definitive, he’s currently expected to return in two to four weeks.
• The evening before the race, Team Honda HRC’s Trey Canard, along with GEICO Honda riders Justin Bogle, Christian Craig, Jimmy DeCotis and Jordan Smith, visited Fremont Honda to hang out with fans and sign autographs. Before leaving, Canard pulled raffle tickets for six lucky fans, each of whom left with a set of tickets and pit passes for Saturday’s race, provided by Honda.
• After checking out the dirt during the morning’s designated track walk, Canard opted to run hand guards on his CRF450R. “The dirt was pretty bad,” said mechanic Brent Presnell. “There were so many rocks, I knew we’d be putting hand guards on. It was almost like Vegas.”
• For the first time, Canard opted to race while wearing Asterisk’s AC System, which is designed to open up a rider’s nostrils. “I ran them once at home for the first time and really liked them, so I decided today that I wanted to run them for the race too,” Canard explained. “They were great. They really open up your breathing.”
• The Santa Clara track showcased some of the lowest lap times seen so far this season. Canard was impressive throughout the day’s qualifying practice, securing the second-fastest time with a blistering 43.563 seconds. He was one of only three riders to drop into the 43-second mark. Bogle was ninth with a 44.686-second time.
• Canard was forced to transfer to the main event via the semi race, but he used the opportunity to lay down his fastest lap time of the night: 43.053 seconds.
• This week, the series heads to Indianapolis for round 13. On Friday, the Honda Red Riders will make an appearance at Westfield Powersports from 6 to 7:30 p.m. to sign autographs and hang out with fans.

THE FOCUS: Back in the Saddle

After competing for 11 consecutive weekends, the racers used spring break to refocus and recover for the final stretch of the series. “It was great to have a weekend off,” Trey Canard said. “It was a good opportunity to spend some time at home with family without having to travel. Our schedules are so hectic each weekend—we’re always riding and then hopping a plane—that it was cool to just relax and not worry about getting on a plane.”

Unsurprisingly, Canard didn’t spend all of the extra time with his feet propped up. “Although we had the weekend off, it didn’t mean the work completely stopped,” he said. “This was a great opportunity to regroup, focus on things we need to do, and try to come back strong in the final races of the series.”