Team Honda HRC confirms and announces that identical rear shock absorber failures were the cause of Cole Seely’s pair of DNF’s at the Motocross of Nations. As a result, Team USA finished a disappointing eighth place overall.
Begin Press Release:

TORRANCE, Calif. (October 4, 2017) ? Team Honda HRC today confirmed that the double DNFs by Cole Seely during the Motocross of Nations at Matterley Basin in Winchester, England, last Sunday were caused by identical shock-absorber failures on his CRF450R. Seely was forced to withdraw from the muddy first and third motos after the spring holder on his factory KYB shock became dislodged, allowing the spring to drop.
?Clearly, we?re very disappointed by what happened at the Motocross of Nations,? said Takashi ?Sam? Mishima, Manager of Motorcycle Sports at American Honda. ?The factory KYB shock on our bike uses a cup-shaped spring collar with a slot where it slides over the shaft, and when the mud packed on the bottoming bumper during the first moto, enough force built up to shift the collar out of place. We used this same setup the entire AMA Pro Motocross season, including at muddy races like Unadilla, but this was the first time we experienced this issue. We replaced the entire shock for Cole?s final moto, but the same problem occurred again. Normally with issues like this, it?s difficult to even recreate them again, so the fact that this problem occurred twice on the same day suggests there was something particular about...