Although it wasn't the night that Team Honda HRC and Cole Seely were hoping for, everyone was pleased with the Californian's impressive come-from-behind performance in the main event, as he advanced from 16th place after the completion of the fist lap to fifth by the checkered flag. Seely's result didn't come easily, as an unfortunate fluke incident in his heat race affected his performance throughout the remainder of the evening.

GEICO Honda's Eli Tomac also overcame a bad start in the main event to charge to second place by the end. This result marked his fourth consecutive podium appearance, and his ninth of the season.

NOTES

• Prior to Saturday's gate drop, the Honda Red Riders headed to Fremont Honda in Fremont, California, to sign autographs and spend time with fans. In attendance were Team Honda HRC's Cole Seely and GEICO Honda riders Eli Tomac, Matt Bisceglia and Malcolm Stewart. The riders will attend another autograph signing at Belleville, New Jersey's Motorcycle Mall on Friday, April 24.
• During the daytime program, Seely set the third-fastest qualifying time at 50.345 seconds, just .587 seconds off the pace of Tomac, who qualified first with a 49.758.
• On race day, Seely's mechanic Rich Simmons and Tomac's mechanic Brian Kranz, who are both graduates of Motorcycle Mechanic Institute, met with a group of students from the local campus to provide a glimpse into the life of a factory mechanic.
• Seely's performance and lap times in his heat race indicated that he was faster than his result. He launched off the line to a second-place start, took over the lead on lap two and quickly opening up a comfortable gap. It looked as if the premier-class rookie was going to score his fourth heat-race win of the season until he went down after colliding with an official who was removing a fallen rider's bike from the track. Seely was the fastest rider in the race, setting a lap time of 49.106, but he finished fifth after remounting.
• Both Seely and Tomac were forced to advance through semi two, in which they finished 1-2 with Seely leading every lap of the race.
• This is a short week for Seely and Tomac, who travel east to participate in Thursday's press conference at New York's Grand Central Terminal. Both riders return to action on Saturday, April 25, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

THE FOCUS: Two Worlds of Honda Racing

Following all the action at Levi's Stadium, Team Honda HRC's Cole Seely spent his Sunday at the famous Long Beach Grand Prix as a guest of Honda Performance Development, a subsidiary of American Honda Motor Company that contributes to aspects of the Supercross racing program. While in attendance, Seely got the opportunity to visit the starting grid prior to the start of the 80-lap race and to meet HPD-supported driver James Hinchcliffe of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

"I enjoy all types of racing and although I don't get to follow IndyCar as much, I have huge respect for the drivers and what they do," Seely said. "Getting the opportunity to come to the Long Beach Grand Prix, meet some drivers, walk the pits and see another side of the Honda brand was an awesome experience. It's crazy to see how fast they really are going, and I was especially blown away by how quickly they can pit. The drivers are in and out within almost 10 seconds! A huge thank-you to Honda Performance Development for making it all happen; hopefully some of the drivers can make it out to see us in action at the Vegas finals."

QUOTES

Cole Seely "I felt like I rode well tonight but what really bothers me is something that was out of my hands, and which affected my main event. The heat-race incident realistically took my gate pick away from me, so I didn't have a fair shot at setting myself up to win tonight. I went from having either the first or second gate pick to ninth pick, which put me in damage-control mode. It's disappointing for sure, but I was riding well. All in all, I finished fifth and am still third in points. On to the next round."

Dan Betley: Team Manager "It was an unfortunate night for Cole. There was an incident in the heat race that put him in a bad position and affected his entire night. He lost a heat-race win and his gate pick, which in turn affected his main-event finish. Other than that, both Eli and Cole rode well, coming from the back of the pack to make it on the podium and in the top five. We're ready to put this one behind us and look forward to next weekend."

Masamitsu Hirashima: Chief Engineer – Team Honda HRC Motocross "GEICO Honda's Eli Tomac rode well and finished second despite getting a bad start. Cole Seely also got a bad start but rode well and came from the back of the pack to finish fifth. Both guys had a good pace throughout the night; we just need to work on our starts to win!"

Rich Simmons: Mechanic (Cole Seely) "It was an unfortunate incident that happened tonight, as we would've had a heat-race win and first or second gate pick for the main event. We kind of gambled and chose a spot that far to the inside because the gate condition was the best, but Cole got pushed too far to the inside on the start straight. The race ended pretty well compared to where he started. He made good passes and was able to move from 16th to fifth, which is a positive we can take out of this. We can say 'what if' all night, but we're just going to put it behind us and move on to New Jersey"

Press contact: Mandie Fonteyn // Dispatch Communications // mandie@dispatchco.com // +1 (951) 537-0454

450SX Results 1. Ryan Dungey 2. Eli Tomac               GEICO Honda 3. Weston Peick 4. Jason Anderson 5. Cole Seely             Team Honda HRC 6. Blake Baggett 7. Justin Brayton 8. Chad Reed 9. Andrew Short 10. Nicholas Wey 11. Kyle Chisholm  12. Broc Tickle 13. Kyle Partridge  14. Nicholas Schmit 15. Killian Rusk 16. Justin Barcia 17. Ben Lamay            18. Dustin Pipes 19. Ronnie Stewart 20. Alex Ray 21. Tshomas Ramette 22. Joshua Grant

450SX Championship Points (after 15 of 17 rounds)