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COLE SEELY
450 SX / 5TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / KILPATRICK DESIGN / WILSON
>> Cole Seely has had a quiet season so far as the lone representative for the Factory Honda effort in the premier class. The Californian sat third in the points heading into the eleventh round of the series at Lucas Oil Stadium, mainly as a result of his consistency throughout the season. Seely has showed podium speed in multiple races and has man- aged to land on the box on two separate occasions, but it’s his consecutive finishes at the front of the field that have propelled him to third place overall in the points standings. Seely has only finished outside of the top five three times throughout the whole year; sixth place at Anaheim I, sixth place at Atlanta, and sixth place at Toronto. The longtime Troy Lee Designs rider didn’t have the most successful qualifying session -- something that he has struggled with throughout the year -- as he ended up fitting into twelfth place on the timing sheets after both timed sessions came to a close. Seely picked the pace up when the gate dropped on his heat race as he barrelled into the first corner in immediate contention with his longtime rival, Jason Anderson. The two of them duked it out on the opening lap and Seely eventually got the better of the exchange, moving him perma- nently into second position. The scuffle caused him to lose an exorbitant amount of time to the leader, so Seely’s main focus was keeping Anderson behind him. The HRC rider eventually worked up a small gap over his Husqvarna backed competitor and cruised to the checkered flag comfortably in second position. Seely didn’t get the best jump out of the gate in the main event and was forced to settle into the middle of the pack through- out the opening stages of the race. The Californian worked his way up to eighth position at the end of the first lap and immediately began to move forward. Seely found his way past his fellow Honda rider, Vince Friese, in a matter of no time and subsequently set his sights on Chad Reed; he immediately made the move on the two-time champion one lap later. At that point, Seely stalked the #18 of Davi Millsaps for a brief succession of laps, plotting his move as the soft Indianapolis soil began to decay, and the lines began to develop. He found his opportunity on the seventh lap and worked his way into fifth posi- tion, but that’s as far as he was able to progress as the gap to the leaders had already developed. Seely was able to lock down another top five finish and continue his pattern of consistent finishes, but he will be at risk of losing his third place in the 450 points standings as he’s now tied with Marvin Musquin heading into the twelfth round of action at Ford Field.
22 GRITMOTO • MARCH 19, 2017