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COLE SEELY
450 MX / 6TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / TILLS
>> Cole Seely’s 2017 450 outdoor campaign has been fairly quiet so far. The Newbury Park, California rider has finished in the top ten at every round except for Tennessee where he would be forced out with an injury. Up until that point he had been knocking on the top five several times with a pair of sixth place overall fin- ishes. However, that hip injury he aggravated at Tennessee has hindered him from getting into that top five but he seemed to look healthier at Red Bud last weekend notching seventh overall. He entered the sands of Southwick ready to build off that nice momentum.
Seely looked good in qualifying practice en route to throwing down the ninth fastest lap time of the morning. His injury did not seem to be bothering him much if at all and he was ready to battle come race time.
When the gate dropped in moto one, Seely would finesse his way into the ninth po- sition by the end of the opening lap. He seemed to enjoy the sweeping sand berms and rollers because he methodically started moving forward. He picked up two spots in two laps to move into seventh. There he continued to grind forward and he picked off Fredrik Noren a few laps later for sixth. His charge stalled out there and he rode hard the rest of the moto until the last lap when Barcia ran out of gas and gifted Seely fifth place for the moto. It was one of his better rides of the year and he would look to back it up in moto two.
The second moto began and it was basically déjà vu for Seely. He started in ninth and once again passed two riders in two laps to move into seventh. This time it took him longer to get up to sixth but he did so around the halfway point when Musquin went down. He kept his Factory Honda steady the remainder of the moto and snuck by Cooper Webb for fifth after he went down. Webb tried to go back after him but Seely distanced himself and secured another fifth-place finish. He would go 5-5 on the day, his most consistent day of the year but he would still miss out on the po- dium and get sixth overall. It is a bummer he could not get in the top five after a pair of fifths but it surely helped as a confidence boost for the rest of the year.
22 GRITMOTO • JULY 9, 2017