Race Rewind: Trey Canard Interview

Trey and his new wife Hannah hug after his win in Oakland. Photo by: Todd Gutierrez

Heading into the fourth round of the 2015 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, in Oakland, all eyes were on Factory Honda Racing’s Trey Canard and Discount Tire Racing/Kawasaki’s Chad Reed. At the last round in Anaheim, the #41 jumped onto the back of the #22 and took them both down. Then came the retaliation from Reed that lead to maybe the most talked about black flag in the sport’s history. So when Reed and Canard were battling for the lead on lap six of the Oakland SX, there wasn’t an eye in the stadium looking away from the battle. In the end, though, there were no fireworks between the two veterans. Instead, Trey passed Reed clean and rode away for his first win in nearly four years. Trey was as dominant as it gets in Oakland: setting the fastest lap in qualifying, winning the heat race and winning the main event.

Four years ago, a win would not have been that big of a deal, but in 2015, it was a huge deal for Trey. When you talk about the greatest comebacks in the history of supercross, few will compare to what we’ve witnessed with Canard. In 2011, he won three 450SX main events in his rookie year and was right in the thick of a championship, but an injury would take him out until 2012. Then, at the 2012 Los Angeles Supercross—when Trey laid unconscious with a fractured spine on the floor of Dodgers Stadium after being landed on by Ryan Morais—most thought it was over for the #41. It was one of the most brutal crashes in the history of the sport and to comeback from that was amazing in itself, but when you throw another two broken femurs, a broken collarbone, countless concussions and surgeries between then and now, it becomes almost miraculous that we are witnessing Trey back to winning at the highest level of the sport. It wasn’t the longest time-span inbetween wins, but definitely the most painful one.

After Trey completed his long road back to the top with his win in Oakland, we caught up with him inside the Honda truck to talk about his night in Oakland. You can read what Trey had to say in “Race Rewind” below.

Trey, congrats on the win tonight, your first one since the 2011 Arlington SX. Dumb question, but how are you feeling?

Yeah, and there was some rough road to get here. I’m just grateful for all of it and happy I can be here tonight.

 

The track tonight was very different from the normal west coast soil—very technical with ruts everywhere. Was it your style?

Yeah, the track was really tough, especially in the main. I mean, there was 4000 ruts, a lot of kickers and square edges out there. I was a little bit tight in the beginning and was able to make a lot of moves. I was able to get in the lead, loosened up, and then the last few laps were completely terrible. (laughs)

I saw a few close calls by you out there where you almost went down hard—especially in the heat race. Was this one of those tracks, more than others, that could easily come up and bite you?

Absolutely. The dirt was really good, which was probably good because it was a tough track. The softer dirt lended itself to a little bit more safety. It was a very tough track with a lot of mistakes to be made.

 

Early in the race you quickly carved your way to the front of the pack after a bad start. I mean, you were super-aggressive early. Was that kind of your game plan going into the main tonight—being super-aggressive early?

Yeah, I saw [Ken] Roczen was in the lead right away, and that’s not good. He’s been getting to the front and leaving us every time. My starts have definitely gotta get better. That was another not-so-good start, so hopefully I can improve on those and continue to be up there.

Well you know what happened to Roczen in the main event, and you’re now third in the 450SX Championship just 14 behind the leader Ryan Dungey and nine behind Roczen. Does that change your mindset at all now heading back to Anaheim next weekend?

No, it’s so early still. Next weekend will be only the fifth round and we have so much more time. Really, I just want to try and focus on continuing to make the bike better, myself better, getting good starts and trying to come out on top.

 

Alright, well congrats on one of the greatest comebacks in the sports history, and we’ll see you next weekend.

Thank you.