By Chase Stallo and Steve Matthes
Since a twelfth in Atlanta 2—one of his worst results of the season—Team Honda HRC’s Cole Seely has seemed more aggressive. He challenged for the win in Daytona before a crash sent him to sixth. A week later in Indy, he pressured Ryan Dungey early before settling for second. Chase Stallo caught up with him down on the podium.
Racer X: You’ve been aggressive the last couple weeks. What’s been going on?
Cole Seely: I don’t know… Honestly I’ve just been trying to cut down a little bit of the training and laps that I do at home. It’s super grounding. You’ve got to do so much work at home and then you’ve got to race on the weekends. I’ve just been kind of trying to play it smart. Definitely not cut myself short during the week but calm down a little bit with the training and make sure that I’m fresh on the weekends. It’s been working pretty good. I did pretty well at Daytona. Just felt like I’m really spunky and I have a lot of energy on the bike on the weekends. Definitely continue with that program.
Are you feeling more comfortable up front too?
Yeah, definitely. I really wanted to get Dungey there, but he’s riding so good. Just tried to stick on his back wheel and wait for a mistake, and he never made one. I just kind of played it smart. I knew I was going to get second and rode it home.
What’s your strategy there when you’ve got a guy like Dungey who is so consistent out front? Do you force him into a mistake? Do you play it even in the beginning?
I haven’t really figured it out yet. Racing with him, he’s so on it every weekend that it’s hard to shake him. I tried to last weekend, tried to throw a wheel on him, and he stayed up and I went down. I’ve just been trying to really learn from all these guys, especially a guy like Dungey who is so consistent. Being a rookie, I’ll figure it out, but I’ve got a little bit of time.
What’s this do going forward? This is the second week in a row that you’ve really been this close to a win.
For sure. I’ve got a good bike underneath me—that’s the main thing. The guys work so hard to make sure that I’m comfortable, and I am every weekend. I’m not too picky or I don’t make their jobs too tough. They’re just so on it and willing to help me. I can’t say thank you enough to those guys, especially my mechanic Rich—he’s been awesome.
Have you guys made any changes lately on the bike?
Honestly we found some stuff when we went testing in Florida for Daytona, and that’s what I rode on tonight. I just kept with that same setup. The bike feels really planted and fast and aggressive in the turns. It allows me to be a little bit more aggressive. That’s pretty much the only thing we’ve changed since Anaheim 1.
After the race, Steve Matthes caught up with Seely in the pits. Check out what he had to say.
Racer X: Something about Indy, man. Made a podium here last year. This year put some heat on Dungey and second place. You’ve got to be pumped.
Cole Seely: Yeah, for sure. Not only that but carrying the momentum from last weekend. I felt like I rode really good. I was right behind Dungey last weekend and I tried to just learn a little bit and study his lines a little bit.
You could have won Daytona.
I could have won Daytona, I know. He’s fast. He’s going to be good every weekend. It’s why he’s got the points lead. Once I realized I couldn’t really get a wheel on him anywhere, I just tried to hang with him and wait for a mistake, but I knew that really wasn’t going to happen because he’s solid. Got kind of tired there at the end and knew that I had second place and could back it down just a little bit. Just stoked to come away from Indy with another podium.
Track didn’t break down as bad as last year, but it was kind of gnarly.
I think it was harder this year because last year it was so deep that it was slow, so you couldn’t go fast. Here it was deep and it was fast. It was tough. The bike handled great, power delivery was good, and made my job even easier.
You have any almost crashes out there?
Three laps to go, real close one. Scared me really bad going through the rhythm section.
That was when you probably decided to back it down?
Yeah, I was like, all right, I’m done. I’m backing down like four seconds a lap. But seeing my teammate back there, Trey, and I just tried to keep him in sight to where he wasn’t going to catch me by the end and just ride it on home.
You were one of the first guys to pick up jumping through the whoops, or at least I felt like. You were the guy that said, hey, I got to start jumping these. They’re beat up. I think that was a good thing to do.
Especially in the main it was really good. Practice I might have started doing it a little early, but it worked and it was consistent. It made the laps so much easier. Skimming whoops is hard, but when they’re soft like that it’s even harder. It was a good call. I remember two years ago we were jumping through them and it reminded me of that. I got that kind of same instinct and just kind of used my experience from two years ago tonight.
Also felt like you were one of the first guys after the finish line to triple that thing over the ledge.
I don’t know why we weren’t doing that the first practice. I was like, this thing’s stupid; I should just launch it. But actually Trey did it before me. I tried to wheelie over it. I was trying everything over that thing but finally I just jumped it. I’m bummed everyone else learned it. I was sitting on top of the leaderboard until everyone else found out about it. It was a good night. Technical track but fast at the same time, and suited me well. Indy’s always been good to me, but, like I said, I feel like I carried a lot of momentum from last weekend, too.
I feel like Musquin and you are a similar rider, technical, use the throttle, able to pick lines, and you both did well tonight because it’s the kind of track that rewards that. To go balls out you’re going to end up on the ground.
The track’s too tacky and too soft to do that. We both kind of ride standing up a lot and ride really over the front and kind of attack but aren’t too aggressive. Like you said, it does suit us really well on a track like this.
No team manager—Dan was sick. Was Gothic the team manager?
Gothic stepped in. He did a great job. It was a bummer when Dan had to step down. Everyone’s getting pretty sick. I’m going to go home and take a bath in Purel. It was a bummer he wasn’t here to see us go 2-3, but Gothic did a good job today. He’s always on it.
