Wins don’t get much more straight up than this. In San Diego, American Honda’s Trey Canard made a pass for the lead on Ken Roczen and pulled away a bit. In the second half of the race, Roczen closed in and delivered serious pressure, but Trey hung tough, avoided the big mistake, and hung on for a big win—his second in three races. Trey’s really finding his form these days. We talked to him in the pits when it was all over.
Racer X: How was it?
Trey Canard: Awesome day. I had a big scare in practice, almost went over the bars. Well, I did end up jumping over the bars, but it could have been a lot worse. But, awesome day. I was pumped with the heat race. I thought I was riding good. I was stoked for the main. I got a little nervous. Kenny [Roczen] was riding really good behind me, so I was pumped to hold on.
In the heat you were all over Kenny at one point. Were you using those lines? Were you thinking about that in the main? It was a very similar situation.
I felt really good in the whoops in the heat and felt like I had a good line to the inside. I saw a line that [Eli] Tomac had used in the previous heat and tried to use it in the main and just got underneath him when he wasn’t expecting it.
And then there was some serious pressure. The last half of the race was crazy.
Yeah, I felt like I’d pulled a little bit out on him and then he reeled me back in. I tried to step it up and step it up, and some mistakes were involved there. But I was pumped. I felt like we were all riding good. It was awesome to get the win.
A lot of lappers tonight.
Yeah, fortunately I hit them all in good places. No one really held me up. I didn’t really ever miss too much. I luckily got away pretty good.
How hard is that, a guy right on you? We’ve seen you succeed in those situations, but we’ve also seen trouble—like that last lap in Anaheim with Davi Millsaps two years ago. How hard is that situation?
It’s really tough, especially when there’s so much going on. You want to charge and try to go fast, but you don’t want to make mistakes. There’s a huge balance between backing it off and trying to go faster. It just feels good to do it again. I haven’t been able to do it in a few years so it’s good to be back up here.
Was this your first good start in a main event?
Yeah, I was right 1-2. I was pumped. I still didn’t get a great jump; just was able to sneak around the inside.
Is there anything you figured out with those starts? Has anything changed? Last I talked to you, you didn’t have a specific problem.
Well, this week on the Pulp Show we were talking about it, you and Matthes. It’s becoming more and more natural. Hopefully that continues to happen and happen. Hopefully can just be consistent with the starts.
You’re not giving Matthes credit for any of this, are you?
[Laughs] Absolutely not. I just wanted to make him feel a little better about himself.
And also no Red Dog [Tim Ferry] here tonight.
No, just Dean Golich [trainer] was here. One of the coaches. I’ve got coach one and coach two.
So those last ten laps, are you able to just ride your own race, or do you know he’s back there the whole time? Are you thinking of him the whole time, or can you actually block that out?
You try to block it out for sure, and then you start to hear him and then you hear the crowd. You just get a little more anxious. I thought I did a decent job the last five laps. Ten to fifteen I wasn’t really happy with.
The track looked pretty technical, at least in practice, and then you guys figured out where to go and what to jump. How bad was it by the main? Was it that tough?
It got better. They’ve been watering them so much that in practice they’re really hard because you just start out in ruts. It’s hard to learn the track in ruts. It’s actually easier by the time you get to the main because everything’s a little smoothed out.
All this watering in the beginning, is it making the tracks better than they used to be at the end of the night? Is it paying off?
I think outside, yeah. When we get to the domes I don’t think we’ll be able to do that, but here the sun’s baking on it all day. I think it helps.
When you finally got back to the pits here, you got a big standing ovation from your team. I was talking to Cole Seely and he was talking about how well you guys get along. This is a really cool thing happening right now, a good vibe.
It’s awesome. It’s so cool for me to be on a team that’s like this. I’ve been on this team for a long time now and there’s been a lot of nights where we hung our heads. I’m just so happy to be a part of this and everyone’s just so excited. I think it shows; between Eli and Cole, everyone is doing great.
