Page 24 - ISSUE _38

COLE SEELY
450 SX / 6TH
IMAGE /MPG WORDS /HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> Cole Seely has been one of the most consistent riders this season in the 450 class. The kid from Southern California has finished no worse than sixth place all year and has finished in the top five at all but one round. He has shown us some impressive speed and looks to have really improved this year. He may be getting a little overdue for his first win of the year so he looked to try and do so in the Georgia Dome. He had a decent qualifying session throwing down the eighth fastest lap time of the day.
Seely looked fast and aggressive to start his night in his heat race. He started sixth but quickly fought by Barcia and Stewart to get into that fourth and final transfer spot. He started putting some pressure on Reed for third but the Aussie responded by passing Tickle putting a rider between them. Seely would not be able to get either Tickle or Reed but he still finished fourth and was headed straight for the main.
Seely got a decent start in the main coming out of lap one in sixth place. He carried that fiery aggression from his heat race over and made some early passes on Reed, Bogle, and Alessi to move into third. He appeared to be the rider to watch to see if he could try and run down Dungey but around halfway things began to fall apart. Tomac charged his way by and then a few laps later he would lose a battle with his buddy Jason Anderson falling back to fifth. He tried settling in and stopping the bleeding but in the final laps, Musquin made the pass pushing him back to sixth. Seely would end up holding on and finishing in that sixth position. It was a weird race for him as he looked so good early on but just did not have that same aggression in the second half of the race.
24 GRITMOTO • FEBRUARY 26, 2017