The 2019 season of Monster Energy Supercross represents a clean start for Cole Seely and Justin Bogle. Seely was a title contender a year ago until a huge crash at the Tampa Supercross left him injured badly, and out of action for months. He’s steadily, and quietly, rebuilding himself this year, and while his results don’t jump off the page (10-9-6-11), he’s clearly getting faster each week.
Justin Bogle has been through a roller coaster ride, too, as he was really never at 100 percent during the 2018 season. He was scheduled for a ride with Phoenix Racing, until that team scaled its plans back, leaving Bogle to try to build his own privateer program. At the 11th hour, Benny Bloss went down with an ACL injury, and his Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS knocked on Bogle’s door and offered a replacement ride. He scored his first top-ten of the season over the weekend.
Seely is working back from injury, and Bogle is adjusting to his new team and bike. Steve Matthes checked in with both riders after Oakland.
Justin Bogle | 10th in 450SX
Racer X: Are you back? Do we feel it? Bad gate position, and you pulled the holeshot, man. Nice job!
Justin Bogle: Thank you, thank you. I’m very happy with how the start went and those first five laps. Finally felt like myself for the first time in a very long time on supercross. That was really cool. I think motivating to keep getting better and just keep working. I think a little more fitness and I’ll be okay. I ripped a start from Egypt and I was happy about that. I just kind of got towed along with Coop and Marv for a little bit. Then started making some mistakes and fell back, but then held her into the top ten. So I’ll take it.
Absolutely. I wrote this week and I said, “I think you’ll know when Bogle’s back. When he starts pulling starts, that’s when you know Bogle feels comfortable.” You’re in the LCQ. You’re way out there and it worked, so you got to be stoked. Crash in the heat race. That could have been ugly.
That could have been ugly. Crash in the heat. I actually completely looped out in the whoops, enough so that my fender and seat were stuck together and not attached to my bike and sticking out of the ground straight up and down. So, eventful heat race. My bike was completely mangled. Shout out to my mechanic, Derrick, and JR and Austin and everybody kind of coming together and getting it ready. It was mangled. Solid night. Obviously not where we want to be in the long run, but this is progress and I will take progress any day of the week.
I was talking to Deano before and he said, “Man, I got a great jump, and Bogle got even better.” So both of you guys from outside.
Yeah, we were I think a couple gates from the outside out there from that LCQ. That was really cool. I was really happy with that because I’ve been missing my starts here lately. It was getting frustrating. Pulled those back out. It’s just amazing what happens when you get a start. I’ve been struggling these last few weeks. Get a start, get up there and feel like myself finally. Get some good laps in.
So when you get a jump like that, there’s a moment where you’re like, I’m going right there? It’s a bit of a crazy feeling from the outside because you’re like, I don’t know what’s going to happen right now.
Yes. The thing is, my jump was so good and I tracked so straight out of the gate…
You knew.
Generally in that first ten feet you can tell, but being that far outside, I just didn’t know what was coming from that inside. I watched the 250 LCQ and those dudes pushed off and went into the next lane. I was like, well, what do I have to lose, really? We’ll see. It was perfectly fine. That was fun. I love getting good starts, man.
Cole Seely | 11th in 450SX
Racer X: Nice qualifying time today, and a nice charge in the main until you went down. Bummer for you. It was potentially going to be a really good main event for you.
Cole Seely: Yeah, for sure. We were definitely picking up momentum as the season goes on. Like you said, I had a good qualifying time today. I never qualify good. That’s kind of always my weakness during the day. Me and Kenny came out swinging one and two. Then I had a really good heat race. Was kind of cat and mouse with Eli there for a little bit. Passed Marvin and Baggett. I was going into the main with a ton of confidence and got off to a good start. The way the start funneled in, it pinched me off. I went from second to seventh in like two jumps. It was tough. I was making some passes and just trying to be efficient because I knew it was going to be a long race. Me and Plessinger almost got together. Nobody’s fault. Just tipped over. I caught a bar, my own bar, to the stomach in the whoops halfway through.
I missed that one. Did you go down?
No. They’re not showing eleventh out there. I was just coming through and really had seventh and eighth in my sights, like the next section over. I was like, “I need to get to those guys.” I just could not breathe. No excuses. Just trying to build on the positives and take it into next weekend. It’s a huge mental thing for me right now. I’m just really trying to get the mental confidence back. It’s coming little by little. Not as fast as I’d like it to, but at the same time I just got to focus on the positives.
We were kind of saying a slow start to the season, at least the first two rounds. I think the triple crown was good for you, even though quietly. You didn’t get a lot of press, but you rode well. Then this weekend looked to be another potential good job. So last couple weeks have been better.
Yeah, been better for sure. I think Phoenix, even though it wasn’t a good result it was probably where I found my stride. I was like, all right. I belong here. I can battle with these guys. I can go 20 minutes. I’ve got the speed. That was really where I found my confidence again. Tonight I found it little by little, minus the crash which was unfortunate. Like I said, I’m just building trying to take the positives. I was so hard on myself last year and learned a lot sitting on the sidelines. Last year I would be so mad at myself when I’d get fourth or fifth, and now I’m like, that was actually pretty good. I was in a good situation last year. Just trying to get back there.
This was a technical track because of the ruts and the slow jumps. Everybody was kind of doing the same things, but a guy like you could kind of pick through the lines and make some time up, I thought.
Yeah. It was tough. I was just talking to Gilmore, our suspension guy. I was like, I don’t know what we could have done better to make the bike better for that type of track. It was really just the whoops were gnarly. They were so hard to get through. It is what it is. It’s going to be a completely different track next weekend too, so we’ll see.
You should have seen some guys by the end of the main. They were dealing with being tired and those whoops.
Oh, I was too, for sure. And I couldn’t breathe. It was a struggle-fest for me out there the last five minutes. Like I said, we’re getting there. Chipping away at this thing. I’m making my way slowly towards the front again.
