Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/863949
P128 CN III EMPIRE OF DIRT BY STEVE COX I first met Trey Canard at the World Mini Grand Prix in 2007. I knew he was the hot, new prospect for the Factory Connection Honda team, and he immediately struck me as a genuine young man. Within the next couple of years, Trey became one of very few rac- ers in the pits that I genuinely consider a friend. A lot of people tend to use that word pretty loosely, considering anybody with whom they're friendly to be their "friend" but that's not how I mean it. In my line of work covering racing, it can be really difficult sometimes to be actual friends with somebody whom you're supposed to be objective about. And I've always been kind of paranoid about it, because if a true friend of mine were to be busted for performance-enhanc- ing drugs, for example, my job is such that I would have to cover it fairly. And I've had this conver- sation with the guys I consider friends. Trey Canard is my friend. And that means something to me. And with Trey recently announc- ing his retirement from profes- sional racing, I have less to worry about on race weekends both in terms of how I cover the action as well as the health of my friend. Over the years since we became friends, I've done what I can to help him with advice, and he's done the same for me. There's no subject we won't broach. And because of this, Trey and I were able to strength- en our bonds of friendship. People say, "Don't talk religion or politics with your friends if you want them to remain so." I think if you can't talk about these things with your friends, they aren't your friends. They might be friendly, but they're acquain- tances at best. Trey is a devout Christian, and I believe he truly tries to live his life that way. To him, his faith isn't just words. I've been an atheist/ agnostic my whole life. By the time I was four years old, I want- ed to be a paleontologist, and I had read every dinosaur book I could get my hands on. And be- cause of that, I had a pretty solid understanding of food chains, biological evolution, etc., even at a young age. Although neither of my parents were "religious" so to speak, they both believed in God, and when I was seven, my parents took me to Sunday school for the first time because they (probably correctly) thought I could use some structure. They were teaching Noah's Ark that day. I got kicked out for asking too many questions. I couldn't understand what I had done wrong, and I think this set me up to become a stereo- typical "angry atheist" by the time I was in my mid-teens—es- pecially as I experienced more discrimination from "friends" in school for my lack of religious MY FRIEND TREY PHOTOGRAPHY BY SIMON CUDBY/KTM MEDIA