Team Honda HRC’s Trey Canard suffers poor starts, multiple crashes in first Lucas Oil Pro Motocross outing of 2015.
Team Honda HRC’s Trey Canard admitted that he wasn’t satisfied with his top-10 overall performance at the Peterson CAT Washougal National motocross this past weekend after waiting for months to return to racing while healing from injuries suffered during the Monster Energy AMA Supercros Series.
“It wasn’t necessarily a bad day because I’ve had much worse here, but I’m also not totally happy with how things went,” Canard said. “My results weren’t great so I’m disappointed in that. I didn’t get great starts in either moto, went down a few times and overall feel like I didn’t ride as well as I should have. The track was extremely slick and very tough, so I’m happy to be leaving healthy and have the first race back under my belt.”
But maybe Canard needs to take it a little easier on himself. After all, he has been had been sidelined since late March while recovering from a serious arm injury after colliding with Kawasaki rider Jake Weimer at the Detroit Supercross, and the rain-slickened Washougal track was far from the type of primo conditions one would hope for when attempting a comeback after such a long layoff.
Still, despite poor starts and multiple crashes, Canard was able to muster 8-9 moto finishes that netted him eighth overall, just one spot behind Team Honda HRC fill-in Fredrik Noren. Now in his normal team’s Motosport.com/GPI/Honda livery, Noren put together two solid motos to finish seventh overall for the third consecutive race weekend, this time via 9-7 moto scores.
Following a round of press-day duties on Thursday, Canard took to the Washougal track for two 20-minute practice sessions where he appeared to be comfortable aboard is Honda factory machine.
“It’s always a great opportunity when you get to ride the track before race day, but I think it was especially good this week since it was my first race back,” Canard said. “It was nice to get out there and have more time on the bike.”
But the usual Washougal track conditions were not present at the start of Sunday’s racing action, as heavy rains turned the course into a quagmire. Canard ran sixth after lap one in the first 450cc moto, but he would slide out and crash while heading up the face of a jump on lap three. He lost several positions before remounting and fighting his way back to eighth place, behind defending Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Champion Ken Roczen. In moto two, Canard got off to a mid-pack start. Canard would lose the front end again on the face of a different jump and recover to fall into a battle with Monster Energy Kawasaki’s new rider, Josh Grant, for 10th. Canard eventually worked his way up to ninth in the moto.
Team Honda HRC Manager Dan Betley said that the team was happy to have Canard back despite what turned out to be a challenging return.
“The track conditions didn’t suit Trey well, so he kind of struggled, going down in both motos,” Betley said. “He was also fighting against two bad starts that didn’t put him in a good position from the beginning. His results weren’t there, but he showed speed in qualifying and his times were right there so we know he’s capable of running that pace.”
Canard expects to be battling for a podium position when the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Series returns for round 10, the Red Bull Unadilla National at the legendary Unadilla MX in New Berlin, New York, August 8.
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