VOL. 52 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 20, 2015 P57
a 1:06.615 halfway through the
final race of the weekend. He
was the only racer to get into the
1:06s, and he did it two laps in a
row. The problem is that Canard
crashed out of the lead in the
slick conditions of race one, slid-
ing out and collecting Yoshimura
Suzuki's James Stewart in the
crash as well. He didn't get a
good start in the second main
but still worked his way up to
second place. In the third main,
he came together with Rock-
star Energy Husqvarna's Jason
Anderson as he was trying to
pass for third place when Ander-
son got loose and knocked out
Canard's front wheel, sending
Canard into the manager's tower
next to the finish-line jump. The
results may not have been what
he wanted, but Canard was the
fastest guy in Vegas, and he got
some good starts to boot.
Briefly...
of that sand bump. The landing was
harsh, and even when the guys did it
well they usually got squirelly. "That
was tricky, I've got to say," said Red
Bull KTM's Ryan Dungey. "I think we
all were sweating it a little bit jumping
in because there's a bunch of lines,
it's squiggly, you kind of lose your
balance. But you land with the gas
on and it wasn't too bad. You're car-
rying a lot of speed. You're coming in
third gear tapped, then you have to
let off the gas, brake, then you let the
brakes go and you just kind of coast
off the face of that jump, so it's tricky.
I was surprised to see the one guy
do it and then we all started doing it.
It ended up being a lot faster. I think it
was a good half-a-second faster just
because you kept your momentum."
Don't be surprised if this obstacle re-
turns to some tracks in 2016.
KTM has offered a 350 SX-F for
quite a few years now, and Husqvar-
na has offered a racing version of
their 350 ever since Husky was
bought by KTM a few years ago, but
there has been a definite lack of rac-
ers on the 350s, at least in the USA.
In Europe, Antonio Cairoli has ridden
a 350 in every single MX1 champion-
ship he's won since he switched to
KTM, but after Andrew Short's short
stint on one quite a while back, fac-
tory racers have avoided it. At the
Monster Energy Cup, though, TLD/
Lucas Oil KTM's Shane McElrath
and Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's
Zach Osborne and Martin Davalos
were on 350s. "For us, since Shane
is still racing the 250cc class, rac-
ing a 350 here was just easier," said
TLD/Lucas Oil KTM Team Manager
Tyler Keefe. "Basically, we just put
his 250 suspension on the 350 and
Dungey has to be wondering just
what he has to do take get the win
after finishing second for the fourth
straight time.
James Stewart had a terrible night.
He went down trying to avoid a
fallen Canard but a separate wrist
injury cut his night early.
continued on page 61
