With the HRC / Honda team losing both Ken Roczen and Cole Seely to some very big injuries, the team called on GEICO / Honda’s Christian Craig to fill in, and the #32 has more than delivered. Christian got the call after Seely went down in Tampa and he immediately gave the HRC team something to smile about with a 5th at the very next round in Atlanta followed by a 4th in Daytona.
After Daytona Christian’s results fell off a bit but he has consistently put the bike in or near the top 10 of every main event and last weekend in Salt Lake City he put the factory Honda back into the top five—matching his career best in 4th. Christian will continue with the HRC team in the 2018 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship along side his teammate Ken Roczen—who will be back from injury at Hangtown—and I think outdoors is where we will really see him shine.
Chris Cooksey caught up with Christian after his 4th place finish in Salt Lake.
Christian, since you’ve been on the 450 this was your best finish, right?
In Daytona I got 4th—a match of my best—but it’s been a while since that race. And some bad finishes since then. It feels good to back up that 4th place.
You’re set up with HRC for the entire outdoor series as a fill in for Cole Seely. Have you guys been testing any of that yet?
I’ve actually been riding more outdoors than Supercross. I do two days a week on outdoors and then I do one day of SX before the race. I think it actually helps you in the long run with corners and stuff. Just switching it up a bit. I think you kind of get stuck in your SX mode. You know, motos and after so many motos at the SX track and months of preparing you kind of get stuck. It feels good to switch it up and go outdoors a little bit.
I’ve heard other guys mention that. You get stuck in that SX speed and it kind of breaks you out of that.
Yeah, exactly! Your first day in outdoors you kind of feel lost again. You’re like, “Alright.” Then you kind of feel your flow again and you go back to SX and feel better. ‘Cause you kind of mix it up. It actually is a help. I’m excited. One more round left and we’ll go out with a good finish.
Those whoops looked absolutely treacherous. They looked big and with no traction. Being a guy like you that’s known for being good in the whoops, do you think that helped you with your finish.
Yeah, I think it did help. Man, I was actually scared of those in the main. Seeing the 250 guys hit those and how many people went down in them, I was like, “Man, it’s going to be tough.” And they didn’t touch them obviously so I committed to blitzing them instead of jumping them the whole night. I tried it in practice and it didn’t go well. I’m like, “I’m going to blitz them all night no matter what.” I ended up doing that and it worked out in my favor. I think I made some passes in there and I hung with the guys in the whoops so I was happy with that.
For the record, from the press box they scared me. Was this probably the scariest track you’ve ridden this year?
The whoop section; yeah. Everything else was basic and easy. The dirt was slippery, but not the scariest track, for sure There have been some sketchier ones. You kind of forget since every week you’re racing so you’re like, “This is the worst.” But then you look back five weeks and you’re like, “That one was pretty bad too.” The whoops for sure were bad.
What do you think of the day races? You have a wife that’s here and pregnant so it’s probably nice to get out of here early.
Oh, we love it! Two weeks in a row of this. We get into bed by 8 or 8:30. You have a good dinner and you don’t feel like a zombie on Sunday. (laughs)
