P132
BY STEVE BAUER
CN
III FRIENDLY FIRE
I
know, it's hard to
believe that after 17
rounds of Super-
cross, the title was
decided by a mere
three points, 365-
362! That's right,
KTM beat Honda for
their first ever Mon-
ster Energy Super-
cross Manufacturer's
Championship! It
may not be worth
millions of dollars
per point to the team
like it is in Formula
One, but there are
a lot of happy faces
in the KTM pits this
year—winning over
half of the races and
clinching the Cham-
pionship with three
races left is apparently
good for morale! More about
them later.
Let's talk about the resur-
gence of Team Honda for a
minute. There are those among
us who can remember a time
when Honda was nearly unbeat-
able. From 1982, the year that
Donnie Hansen won their first
Supercross title, through 2003,
the year Ricky Carmichael
won their last, Big Red won 15
Supercross Championships and
lost only seven. For the past 12
years, they have been chasing
that high and it seemed like they
SUPERCROSS 2015 IN RETROSPECT
had a chance at it this year, but
again came up short. The ad-
dition of HRC to their vast pool
of resources made a difference
with their bike set-up, but Trey
Canard's early season slew of
bad starts, combined with some
sketchy line choices while playing
catch-up made him vulnerable to
another season-ending injury.
As a 450-class rookie and with
the weight of the world on his
shoulders, Cole Seely stepped up
and delivered in a big way, never
finishing out of the top-five during
the last half of the season and
bringing home a win in Houston.
His third place in series points
was one of the most impressive
rookie seasons, ever. Honda's
other standout performer was Eli
Tomac, riding for the GEICO sat-
ellite team. Tomac usually looked
like the fastest rider on the track
and often times he was, but too
many mediocre starts and a few
hard crashes left him out of the
points twice and with just a hand-
ful at another, relegating him to
best-of-the-rest status. Eli was
more focused and consistent
towards the end of the season
Ryan Dungey has been the
center of attraction all season.
