Page 74 - ISSUE25

74
GRITMOTO • JULY.18.16
theGRIT
IMAGES / WONDERGOAT
Trey Canard got right back into the swing of things with a solid top ten start in his first moto since Thunder Valley at the beginning of the season. He settled into the race pace and was able to work his way around the JGR rider of Weston Peick into 9th place by the second lap. For the next couple of laps, Canard was hound-
ing the 450 rookie of Benny Bloss and he set his fastest lap of the race thus far in the process. On lap four, Canard found his way around the BTO KTM rider and set his sights on the next in line, Andrew Short. He rode a calm and collected
race and gradually brought his factory Honda closer and closer to the series veteran, consistently chipping away at the four second gap between the two. With about six minutes to go in the moto, Canard began to take chunks out of the gap and eventually forced Shorty into a mistake that allowed him to secure a 6th place finish. The Oklahoma native showed the pace to battle in the top five, but starting at the back end of the top ten didn’t make things easy for him by any means. The second moto started in a very similar fashion as Canard found himself in approximately 10th place right out of the gate. He quickly made his way up to 8th place as he forced his way around the KTM duo of Dean Wilson and Justin Brayton. There was a gaggle of riders just ahead of Canard that consisted of JGR teammates, Bar- cia and Nicoletti, as well as the BTO KTM of Andrew Short; Canard worked his way by Nicoletti and Short in fairly decisive fashion and took advantage of a Barcia mistake in order to put himself into 5th place. At this point, he was ten seconds behind the 4th place rider, Christophe Pourcel, and he attempted to chip away at the gap between his Honda and the Husqvarna. All of the time away from racing began to catch up with him towards the end of the moto and Barcia had bounced back from his mistake earlier in the race. The New Yorker was about two seconds per lap faster than Canard and closed right up to his rear wheel, hounding him all the way until the thirty minutes expired. It was clear that Barcia had a little bit more pace, but Canard showed excellent race craft to keep the Yamaha at bay until he made a mistake and twisted his ankle just before the finish line. He slowed down after Barcia went past to check the gap back
to 7th - a perfect display of his physical state after missing so much valuable time on the bike and wrenching his ankle. Canard man- aged a twelve second gap over 7th place Phil Nicoletti for the remainder of the race and brought his Honda home in 6th place yet again. Although a rider of Trey’s caliber expects more from himself, 6th overall could be considered an extremely successful return from injury and he has stayed incredibly consistent in every moto he’s raced this year. He’ll be looking to break back into the top five next week at Washougal - a track that has thrown Canard a lot of bad luck in past years of racing.
words/LAKEKILPATRICK