Trey Canard is electing to sit out the Anaheim II round of the AMA Supercross Series after a second visit to his doctor revealed signs of whiplash and a slight concussion, this after the defending East Lites Supercross Champion crashed heavily during his heat race in Phoenix.
“He had some neurological tests done on Monday (Jan. 5th) and of course he didn’t score very well,” said Canard’s mother, Kari. “So he went back on Thursday and he scored better but it still wasn’t satisfactory, so we decided it would be better for him to sit out the next round.”
Canard traveled back to Oklahoma today so he could spend the weekend at home and relax. So far, 2009 has not been the best of starts for the Geico Powersports Honda rider. At the opener in Anaheim, Canard was the victim of a pileup just after the start which left him dead last at the end of lap-one. He eventually finished 14th.
In Phoenix, during his heat race, Canard tangled with Star Racing’s Michael Hall at the end of the first set of whoops and went down when Hall’s bike caught Canard’s front brake lever. The crash effectively ended Canard’s day. According to Canard’s mother, Trey took all of the blame for the crash with Hall.
“Trey said he was just too impatient and went through the whoops too fast and somehow, Michael got into Trey’s brake, whether Michael scooted over or Trey was out of control, I’m not sure,” said Kari Canard.
Regardless of what caused the crash, Canard went flying over the berm and hit hard on the other side.
Canard travels back to his doctor in California on the 20th for further evaluation, but it is expected he will be cleared to ride the San Francisco round on the 31st.
“Trey is basically out of the points right now, and we weren’t comfortable with him going back out at A2 and taking a chance of hitting his head again. Then he would be in a much worse situation,” said Kari Canard. “It would be of no benefit to go out and ride that soon. He has had a mild headache all week but that is slowly going away and he was, of course, quite sore on Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, he and Kevin Windham did a photo shoot for a Geico commercial, but he was still a little woozy.
“Trey just feels disappointed because he feels like he hasn’t had a good race in quite a few months, but I told him to look at this as a do-over and forget about everything since St. Louis last year and just start all over again and make the best of it,” added Keri Canard.
