CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 53 ISSUE 6 FEBRUARY 17, 2016 P49
However, apparently KTM team manager
Roger DeCoster complained to the FIM's
John Gallagher about the incident and told
Gallagher the team had to replace Dungey's
swingarm. Then, prior to the third and final
practice session, Gallagher approached
Canard.
"He [Gallagher] pulled me over and told
me that I needed to make better decisions,
and that he talked to me about that last
year," Canard said. "Basically, the gist I got
is I needed to shape up. I had no idea what
he was talking about, so I asked him. He
told me that I had hit Ryan Dungey so hard
that they needed to change his swingarm.
That's what he told me, and I was infuri-
ated. I had barely touched him. I had talked
to Ryan previously. Everything was fine
between him and I. It just really upset me
because I'm trying my best out here, and
I'm not trying to hit anyone. And I know
I've had run-ins with guys, but who hasn't?
We're racing. We're trying to do the best we
can."
It apparently got heated between Gal-
lagher and Canard, and Canard felt he was
being unfairly targeted, without evidence,
and after being berated, Canard defended
himself and during his response he poked
Gallagher in the chest with his finger. Gal-
lagher reportedly responded by threatening
to ban Canard from racing altogether if he
touched Gallagher again.
"We can do so much better in this sport,"
Canard said. "We can do so much better,
I really feel, with the tracks, with the way
we're putting things together, the communi-
cation between riders, and the people that
are putting on the races... We can do 10
times better in my opinion. And it's things
like this incident today that really frustrate
me. I just want people to know that yeah, I
did get aggravated. I'm not perfect. I didn't
bite my tongue."
TREY CANARD
As if Honda's Trey Canard didn't have
enough to worry about in San Diego, with
it being his first race back since injuring his
hand at Anaheim 2, he got in some hot wa-
ter with the officials and still doesn't know
exactly why.
Apparently, Canard and Red Bull KTM's
Ryan Dungey came together in the day's
second practice session when Dungey
jumped across in front of Canard and
Canard hit him in the rear end with his front
end. Nobody crashed. Just as with Dung-
ey's T-bone of James Stewart at Anaheim
1 (which led to Stewart going down very
hard), this was simply a case of two motor-
cycles attempting to occupy the same spot
at the same time.
