Yesterday we covered the Atlanta run ins between Honda HRC's Cole Seely and Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Jason Anderson. Anderson has been riding aggressively all season and it has paid off with key passes, and a few weeks ago we wrote that, "The motives are pure, and that’s why some of the riders he’s run into, like Cole Seely, are okay with it all, because most of this comes from a basic necessity of making passes. It’s aggressive, but it’s still racing."
Nothing had crossed the line until Saturday night, when Seely felt things went too far. They bumped into each other at least twice, culminating in a last lap takeout by Anderson. (Seely said Anderson later attempted to apologize for it.)
Today, Anderson took to his Instagram account to further explain himself via this well-written post.
Looking forward to A better weekend in Daytona! Hoping to leave the incidents that happened in Atlanta in the past. Yeah I was wrong in what I did, but the other guy wasn't innocent we both let the egos get the best of us. Also as far as people talking about my riding. This weekend was the first incident all year that left someone on the ground. The only other incident that people could call questionable was with Brayton in San Diego heat race. With that said my intentions are never to put someone on the ground. Yeah I'll bump you cause I don't work my ass off all week to just sit around and wait to pass you... My goal is to move forward as quick as possible and I don't want to knock people down but I will be aggressive. At the end of the day I and all my competitors pour our hearts into doing good so obviously not everyone is gonna get along. Also I guarantee there are gonna be nights where I'm riding like shit and people have to be aggressive to get by me.. It's racing!
Anderson is correct. Most of his moves this year fill the "just racing" variety, and in a stacked field, getting sub-par starts on tracks that are hard to pass on makes aggressive passing a necessity and an advantage. That all makes sense. However, at this point the ball is in Seely's court. Anderson is looking to leave the incidents that happened in Atlanta in the past. We'll see how it plays out between these two.
