Troy Dog
A couple of weeks ago, we had Trey Canard on the Vurbmoto Podcast Network to talk about some old races as well as the end of his amateur career. We wanted to understand what the 2007 season was like for him as he signed his first professional deal at the end of the 2006 season after going six for six in the B classes at Loretta Lynn’s.
In hindsight, Canard gave us some information that we weren’t aware of. As we know now, Canard signed a deal with Factory Connection Honda’s new amateur team. Factory Connection had brought up amateur riders in the past like Josh Grant, Tommy Hahn, and Ryan Mills, but this was a bit of a revamp. He won the 2008 250SX East Coast Championship as a rookie and the program went onto great success. In the next few seasons the team became GEICO Honda and would hire amateur to pro deals with Blake Wharton, Justin Barcia, Eli Tomac, Justin Bogle, and more along the way.
What you may not have known is that Canard had a deal on the table from Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki as well. Both offers from Pro Circuit and Factory Connection were three-year deals that would see Canard finish out his amateur career in 2007 with a move to the pro ranks for the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
“I remember actually at Loretta’s, Mike Fisher, who was the Race Director for Kawasaki had come up to me,” Canard said. “He talked to me about being interested for the Pro Circuit role. That same week, Ziggy (Rick Zielfelder) had mentioned, ‘Hey, we’re going to start this kind of amateur team and we’d really love you to be apart of it’. I think I was so naive. I thought Mike Fisher was talking about kind of like a Team Green role and I thought Ziggy was like, ‘Yeah, hey we’ll do your suspension!'”
Pro Circuit was riding high off of their 2006 250 Pro Motocross Championship from their rookie at the time, Ryan Villopoto. Could you imagine a powerhouse team of RV and Canard? It’s kind of interesting to look back at it now because those two ended up squaring off in that 2008 East Region for the championship. Could you imagine if they had done that as PC teammates? In an alternate reality it would have been a pretty cool scenario for the fans.
“I was never really convinced that I was going to be on a factory level team and then to have that in my lap was amazing,” Canard said. “I ended up riding both bikes. I had a little bit of a test tryout. I got some advice from the best people that I knew. Marshall Plumb was in Oklahoma and had a lot of experience in the industry. He said, ‘Hey just ride both of the bikes, they will do that for you.'”
During those tests, Canard learned a lot about each program and he felt like the best decision for himself at the time was to go the Factory Connection route. He felt like the team really wanted him and made him feel at home among other factors.
“The Pro Circuit ride, it was kind of a little less enthused,” Canard said. “They had RV who was just sweeping everything at the time winning on the way to his first motocross championship. Not that they didn’t care to be there, obviously the fact that they showed up was a big deal. It was a difficult decision. I had been a Kawi guy my whole life and so to make that transition was tough.”
One of the biggest factors in the decision was the fact that Canard could bring his mechanic Brent Presnell with him to the Honda deal. Presnell moved in after Canard’s father tragically passed away and he became part of the family in some difficult times. It was important for Canard to have Presnell as he made his transition into the pro ranks.
Although it was a difficult choice for Canard to make, in the end it all worked out the way it was supposed to. Also, a little bit of a fun fact for you, Canard said he actually broke his collarbone at the Pro Circuit test. Clearly it was nothing to do with the bike and things happen on dirt bikes, but maybe that factored into the final decision as well?
Could you imagine if he’d gone the Pro Circuit direction? Would the bike have gelled with him like the Honda did? Would he have won the 2008 SX title? It makes for good bench racing.
One thing that is for sure is that when Canard signed that deal with Factory Connection, and won right away, he helped pave a way for the top amateur riders in the sport to follow in his path. It cleared a path for the rest of his career and set the tone for the GEICO program.
Listen to the entire interview with Canard below.
Images: Align Media
