IN
THE
WIND
P48
SEELY WINS IN JAPAN
C
ole Seely made the long
journey to Japan well worth
the effort by winning the fi-
nal round of the All Japan MX
National Championship, held at
the Sportland Sugo in Mlyagi,
Japan, October 23.
Seely rode the all-new 2017
Honda CRF450R and pretty
much dominated all day. He was
the top rider in timed practice,
he won his qualifier and won
both motos in the 450cc class.
"I'm stoked with how this
week in Japan has gone," Seely
said. "I can't thank everyone at
Honda enough for the opportu-
nity to come here and do what I
love. The race went great, too.
I was able to go 1-1 and bring
home the win for my team. This
is my second race back from
injury, so it was good to get
more gate time before Anaheim.
It was also awesome to get a
chance to see a bunch of differ-
ent Honda facilities and meet so
many people that help make my
dream possible."
The icing on the cake for
Honda was Akira Narita wrap-
ping up the championship, the
11th of his career. Plus, Tomohro
Nitsuka took the 250cc champi-
onship on his Honda.
"It was a good day for HRC,"
said Sam Mishima, Honda Mo-
torcycle Sports Manager, of the
Sugo National. "Cole showed
a lot of good speed, taking the
win in qualifying and both motos,
while Akira Narita and Tomohiro
Nitsuka wrapped up their respec-
tive championships. It's great
having our Team Honda HRC
riders come to Japan to race in
front of these fans and to visit
Honda's facilities, so hopefully
we can make this a standard an-
nual trip for our team." CN
Overall
1. Cole Seely (1-1)
2. Yuu Hitata (3-2)
3. Youhei Kojima (2-3)
4. Kouichi Fukaya (5-4)
5. Yoshitaka Atsuta (6-5)
Cole Seely celebrates his win
at the final round of the All
Japan MX Nationals.
PHOTOGRAPHY
COURTESY
HONDA
HRC
