Seely Out, Barcia In For Santa Clara Supercross | SX Injuries

Barcia Back, Seely Sits at Santa Clara SX

Team Honda HRC reports that Cole Seely will miss the Santa Clara, Calif. round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series due to an injury in a practice crash. Team Honda HRC says that Seely crashed at Milestone MX in Riverside, Calif., and chipped off a piece of his C7 vertebra. An early prediction is that Seely will be able to return in as few as two weeks.

A pre-season thumb injury hampered Autotrader/Monster Energy Yamaha’s Justin Barcia from the beginning of the year. After finishing outside the top 10 at the first two rounds, Barcia went in for surgery. He is set to return to the Monster Energy Supercross season at Santa Clara.

With only two finishes, Barcia is in 25th place (16 points) in the standings, in the midst of a quartet of injured riders that includes KTM’s Dean Wilson and Andrew Short, plus Suzuki’s Broc Tickle. Barcia’s replacement rider, Phil Nicoletti, has had a disappointing year. In seven Main Events, Nicoletti has finished no better than 14th, and outside of the top 20 three times.

With 11 of 18 rounds completed in the Monster Energy Supercross season, Seely sits in 6th place with 173 points, five points behind KTM’s Marvin Musquin and 13 points ahead of Yamaha’s Chad Reed. Championship leader KTM’s Ryan Dungey leads Seely by 80 points.

Seely has had an inconsistent year, with just three podiums—two 3rds to start the year, and a 2nd at SD2. Seely has struggled lately, with two 10ths and an 11th in three of the last four rounds. At the last round in Detroit two weeks ago, Seely had his worst finish of the year–an 11th.

Next race: April 2, 2016. Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, California
TV schedule: April 2, Fox Sports 1, 7p EDT.

1. Ryan Dungey, 253 points (5 wins)
2. Ken Roczen, 214 (3 wins)
3. Jason Anderson, 200 (2 wins)
4. Eli Tomac, 186 (1 win)
5. Marvin Musquin, 178
6. Cole Seely, 173
7. Chad Reed, 160
8. Justin Brayton, 128
9. Davi Millsaps, 105
10. Trey Canard, 104
11. Jake Weimer, 93
12. Weston Peick, 79
13. Christophe Pourcel, 77
14. Mike Alessi, 73
15. Vince Friese, 56
16. Wil Hahn, 56
17. Justin Bogle, 53
18. Blake Baggett, 26
19. Nick Schmidt, 25
20. Phil Nicoletti, 25
    Photography by Simon Cudby, et al