The penultimate round of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship took place at Maryland’s Budds Creek Raceway, where Team Honda HRC’s Cole Seely put in a pair of respectable rides to notch fifth overall with 4-8 scores, while Christian Craig finished ninth via 10-9 marks.
When the gate dropped for moto one, Seely propelled his CRF450R to a fourth-place start. The Californian was riding aggressively, making the pass into third by lap two. While applying pressure on the frontrunners, Seely made a mistake and tipped over in a downhill off-camber turn. He quickly got underway before losing any positions but was unable to regain ground on the leaders. He maintained third until just after the halfway point, when he made another mistake, relinquishing one spot to finish fourth. Craig got a good jump out of the gate but came together with another rider’s back wheel, causing him to fall outside the top 15. Craig charged through the remainder of the 30-minute-plus-two-lap race, climbing to 10th by the checkered flag. In moto two, Seely rounded the first turn in seventh, while Craig was just outside the top 10. On the second lap, Seely moved into sixth and began applying pressure on the rider in front of him. He was unable to make the pass and ultimately relinquished two positions before the end to finish eighth. With two laps remaining, Craig made a final pass into ninth, which is where he finished.
NOTES
- In the morning’s timed qualifying practice, Christian Craig led the charge for Team Honda HRC, posting the fourth-fastest time of 2’08.020”. Cole Seely was sixth with a 2’09.003” lap.
- With torrential downpours throughout Friday evening, many riders anticipated extremely muddy track conditions on race day. Surprisingly, that was not the case, as the track ended up dry and hard-packed. “For what the track could’ve been with the crazy storm and tons of rain that came down the night before, it was actually a very raceable track,” Seely said. “I would much rather have it flat and kind of wide-open versus a slop-fest all day.”
- It was a decent day for the GEICO Honda squad, as all three riders overcame mistakes to finish among the top 10 250cc riders. Following his impressive win last weekend in New York, Jeremy Martin was looking for similar results at Budds Creek. Unfortunately, a crash in the day’s second moto caused him to lose multiple spots, resulting in fourth overall on the day with 2-6 marks. Teammate RJ Hampshire posted 3-7 finishes for sixth overall. Chase Sexton was the hard charger of the day, overcoming a crash in moto one and hitting the starting gate in moto two to still finish ninth in both races for eighth overall.
- Next weekend, Team Honda HRC heads to Indiana’s Ironman MX for the final round of the 2017 AMA Pro Motocross series. Including AMA Supercross, it will be the team’s 29th race of the year. “It’s a long season for sure,” Seely said. “We’ve been going nonstop since the beginning of January, with only five weekends off. I’m looking forward to a little vacation in Mexico with my girlfriend immediately after Indiana, which we booked before I got asked to do Motocross of Nations. Other than that though, I won’t really have any time off because I’ll continue training for that race, then there’s Monster Energy Cup in October and I’m doing Bercy in November.”
THE FOCUS: A Day With Roczen
For the fourth time since his injury at the Anaheim 2 Supercross, Team Honda HRC rider Ken Roczen joined his crew at the Budds Creek National to support teammate Cole Seely and fill-in rider Christian Craig. It was a busy day for Roczen, as he fulfilled multiple obligations during the day. He started his morning with a taped TV interview with Georgia Albertson, which aired on NBC Sports during moto two. After signing autographs alongside his fellow Red Riders, Roczen joined Jason Weigandt and Grant Langston in the TV broadcast booth, commentating on the first moto for MAVTV.
“Although I don’t like watching the races because I know I should be out there winning, I enjoy coming and hanging out with my team and seeing all the fans,” Roczen said. “It’s cool to see everyone so excited and hear all the well-wishes. Today was better than normal when not racing because I was in the TV booth. I actually enjoy commentating on the race with Jason and Grant. It’s a lot of fun and I can give my perspective as a rider.”
Despite the fact that he wasn’t on a bike, the day wasn’t a walk in the park for Roczen. “I honestly feel more tired after running around today than I do after riding both motos!” he laughed.
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Cole Seely 14
I’m happy with fifth overall today. I actually feel lucky to have even gotten that after how my second moto went. I think I’ve been riding a lot better over the past three weeks and have had much more intensity, so that’s a positive. I felt great in the first moto and was closing in on the leaders while in third before going down. I got going real quick but a few laps later Marvin [Musquin] got by me. If I didn’t have that one major mistake, I feel like I could’ve possibly won or at least got second because I felt good. I just struggled in the second moto, which is the only real negative from today. I had a little malfunction with my goggles, so I had a hard time seeing out there but it is what it is.
Christian Craig 48
Today was another race where I qualified good [fourth] and couldn’t get that result in the motos. My starts haven’t been where they were in the beginning of the summer, before I broke my hand. Starting mid-pack makes it hard to make a lot of moves, especially with a stacked class. I’m happy to get another top-10 for the team but based on my speed and qualifying every week, I should be getting better results. There’s one round left and one more chance to get into the top five overall.
Dan Betley
I was excited watching Cole ride in the first moto. Over the past three rounds I see an aggression in his riding style that we haven’t seen too much. He’s pushing himself and I see his improvement outdoors each week. Unfortunately, he struggled a bit in the second moto. He got an okay start but just wasn’t able to make the passes that he needed to. I still think he needs to improve in these conditions because it seems like he struggles more in the second motos when it’s hot and humid like this. For some reason, Christian just struggled all day again. After speaking with him, he’s frustrated because he doesn’t really know what happened. His starts weren’t good, which is not typical of Christian, and he said it seemed like the harder he rode, the worse he got. We’ll move on to the last round and then call it a season.
Rich Simmons
I’m a little disappointed. Cole’s first moto was good but he had a small tip-over, then another mistake, which is when Marvin [Musquin] got past him. He got a good start and rode well for fourth, so that was solid. He got a decent start in the second moto but I’m not sure what happened. He just went backwards. I feel like he should’ve passed Dean [Wilson] and at least finished fifth that moto. He was really happy with the bike today. We probably could’ve gone a little softer for the second moto to make it a bit easier to ride but he didn’t want to change anything because it felt so good in the first moto. That’s all hindsight though. We’ve got one more left, then Motocross of Nations.
Oscar Wirdeman
Today was just one of those days. Christian didn’t seem to have any fire in him and just struggled in both races. His starts weren’t great in either moto, which didn’t help. It seems like if he gets good starts, he can run the front pace but when he doesn’t get good starts, he never really finds his groove.
