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COLE SEELY
450 SX / 10TH
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> Cole Seely has been the definition of consistent this season. The Factory Honda rider has finished no worse than sixth at any race this year. The only problem with that however is that he has only finished better than fifth three times including two podiums. He has been right on the brink of being a consistent podium guy or even sneaking in a win but the main events have been giving him just enough grief. Albeit subpar starts or small mistakes, Seely has yet to really breakthrough in 2017. He entered Detroit feeling confident in his speed and abili- ties, ready to finally make that leap.
Seely looked smooth and majestic in qualifying practice en route to notching the eighth quickest time. He was only four tenths of a second off the pole position
so his speed was where it needed to be for the night show. He got things going in his heat race by ripping a big holeshot and instantly pulling away. He built a comfortable margin over two-time champion Chad Reed and maintained it all the way to the checkered flag. He looked great on the ultra-slick course and it surely suited his style well so hopes were high on the #14 heading into the main event.
Seely attempted to repeat his start from the heat race but things went wrong for him almost instantly. He got tangled up in the first turn with a bevy of other riders setting him back right from the get go. After getting out of the mess, he began to spin some solid laps to try and make up all the ground that he lost. He moved up to thirteenth after a few laps but his charge slowed as the race went on. The en- tire 450 class was very close on speed all day making it tough to pass but Seely would be able to eek out three more positions to crack the top ten in tenth place. It marks his worst finish of the season which is even more of a bummer because it looked like he had the goods to make a run at the podium if not the win. We will surely see the Southern Californian product rebound next weekend in St. Louis.
60 GRITMOTO • MARCH 26, 2017