The mighty HRC Honda team has NO 450 riders in either its MXGP or USA team’s as the one remaining rider Cole Seely crashed hard in a Tampa Supercross heat race and has fractured his pelvis and tail bone.

A Honda statement said: “After being evaluated at the local hospital, it has been confirmed that @coleseely suffered a fracture to his pelvis and tailbone. He will undergo surgery tonight and more details will be released as they become available.”

Seely went down in a heat race and his bike landed on him. His US team-mate Ken Roczen is out with a broken hand and in the MXGP class, which is due to start a week today, Tim Gajser is out after breaking his jaw a week ago and Brian Bogers is still not back from an off-season injury.

There is no new on whether Honda will draft in any replacement riders for either the US or MXGP series yet.

It’s known the MXGP team was keen to sign up Benoit Paturel who is without a factory ride now he’s had to move up to 450s as he’s too old for the 250 class.