Honda: Help Wanted 7

With three-time Supercross winner Trey Canard on the sidelines after last week's testing crash, and Josh Grant already out for nearly the entire Supercross series following a knee injury at the second round in Phoenix, things have been a little rough at American Honda Racing this week.

When we stopped by the Honda Racing rig in Seattle, Team Manager Erik Kehoe had opened the fences to what's usually one of the most exclusive pit areas, and letting fans get a much better than average look with their equipment. He explained, "We're hosting an open house at the Seattle Supercross. Letting people take pictures with the bikes, and trying to give back to the fans a little bit. I know that everybody's disappointed to not see Trey here, but we'll give 'em a chance to touch the bike and get a little up close and personal."

When we mentioned that this was a pretty rare opportunity, he agreed. "Yeah, you're right. It's kind of a product of our situation right now. I think being here, the bikes and everybody was already here, it'd just happened, so it we thought, 'You know what? Let's take advantage of this and take care of our sponsors and everybody that's got an interest in the team and try to give back a little bit."

As for Trey Canard's crash last week, he told us, "You know, Trey was riding really awesome, he had an unfortunate crash, and ended up with a non-displaced fracture. For a fracture of the femur, it's probably the best way you could have it. The rod probably strengthened it a little bit. Unfortunately it cracked right at the screw hole, where the screw goes into his leg for the femur rod. He's in some pain right now, but I think it's getting better every day. He'll be out for a little while, but back before we know it."

Of course, with both of the American Honda Racing team riders on the sidelines, the question's already being floated about who'll replace them. Erik continued, "Yeah, it's still yet to be determined, I think all the rumors are out there pretty accurate. We're talking around, and looking at all of our different options. But I think right now it's a little too early to really say what our plan is. I think the early part of the series, it's hard to say exactly which race, both Josh and Trey will be back. So we're looking forward to that. We will have somebody on the bike at Hangtown, so we're looking forward to it."

Kevin Windham's name is among those heard most often for the summer replacement gig, particularly since he already had served in he same role last summer. After Saturday night's second-place finish, we asked him if we might see him under the Honda tent in the coming months, and he told us, "We are talking about it right now. I need to want to do it bad. Last year I did. I did six rounds, I did an Australian series as well, then back over there to the states, and kind of missing that off-season right now. I'm a little tired right now. I've got to try to find a way to get rejeuvenated, and I don't know if I'm ready to tackle the whole battle of even testing at this point. Obviously Canard's out now, and JG's out for a while, and it makes sense. I've just gotta have that drive. Doing this and not being at the front sucks. It's really tough, especially once you've tasted victory in the past. It's just difficult to get it handed to you week in and week out."

Chad Reed's another rider in the rumor mix, but at this point he still sounds more focused on the Supercross championship. We'd also talked to him earlier in the day last Saturday, and he didn't sound interested in moving away from his own team effort. However, after Saturday night's race, he did allow that during the break, "There are things that I want to work on. I'm going straight from here to California to try and be better for Salt Lake. There are two races to go and I'm kind of Big Red's hope right now. So we'll see what we can pull from them, and we're going to have a big week this week. We're going to be at the test track, so we'll see. There may be some different things for next race, and we'll see which direction we end up."

Stay tuned.