Trey Canard takes the 2011 AMA Rookie of the Year award
Factory Honda’s Trey Canard received this year’s American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Rookie of the Year award for the Supercross class a day after the season concluded in Las Vegas on May 8.
Canard came to the stage to receive the award with crutches, due to an accident that he had been involved in a month ago. The 20-year-old Canard said that it was quite an honour for him to take the award. He had missed out on the AMA’s Rookie award in his
first year as a pro in 2008 due to an injury.
Glad to finally get his hands on an award as well as win several races in his first Superclass season, he said, “It's something I've always wanted to achieve," he said. “It's been a goal of mine and to have that honour is huge. I wouldn't say I expected
it but I wanted to win [at least] one race. That was a goal. With three wins I obviously surpassed that.”
Canard was going through what may be regarded as a dream rookie season. Competing against the top freestyle motocross (FMX) athletes, who included the likes of James Stewart, Chad Reed and Ryan Villopoto, the Oklahoma-based rider had managed to come out
victorious in not one, but three stops.
He clinched his first ever Supercross class victory at the sixth stop of the series on February 12
at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The ASP rookie went on to secure his second win in the 11th round of the series in Jacksonville, Florida, where he beat the world’s best FMX athletes at the Jacksonville Municipal Stadium on March 19.
His final victory of the 2011 season came in the 13th round when he defied all odds to prevail at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas, on April 2.
Canard is currently on crutches because of his accident in California last month. He was testing out for the AMA Lucas Oil Motocross Championships on May 13
when he overshot a big jump and landed sideways in a breaking lump, breaking his femur in the crash. The injury brought his first-ever Supercross season to a premature end.
“I was lucky to get away with just a fractured femur,” he said. “It was one of those crashes that could have been worse.”
He was in contention for the championship title before getting injured. He did, however, finish in the top five of the season even though he missed out on the last three races of the event due to his injury.
The Factory Honda rider is recovering well and is down to one crutch now. He is hopeful that he will be back on his bike in about four weeks time.
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