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JORDON SMITH
250 SX / 2ND
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> After being at the forefront of a wild and frenetic 2017 250SX East Coast Championship cam- paign, Jordon Smith has taken a step back into the background here in 2018. He has lurked in the shadows all season long and has quietly been stringing together one of his most consistent seasons ever. He even broke free and won at the toughest race of the year in Daytona. Other than that one race, he has struggled to get the holeshots needed to win another. He has fought from mid-pack seemingly every race and that has hurt him in the win column but not so much the good results column. He has only nished off the podium at one race (a fourth) after the rst two rounds. If it wasn’t for his back to back sixth place nishes, he could very well be in much closer contention for the title. Heading into Foxboro, he sits twelve points back in the standings to Zach Osborne.
Smith had a strong pair of morning qualifying practice sessions. The Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM rider had the third fastest lap time of the class. His time was just behind the other two title contenders, Zach Osborne and Jeremy Martin, so he knew he would have to nd a little bit extra in the races if he wanted a chance at the victory and closing the gap in the points standings.
Smith struggled early in his heat race. His Achilles heel all year has been his starts and it hurt him again in this one. He was buried on the opening lap and managed to claw to seventh by the end of the rst lap. The track was slick and tough to navigate so he had to carefully make passes on his way to the front. Despite the slickness, he managed to ease his way into third position by lap four. Once he was there, he tried running down his buddy from MTF, Anthony Rodriguez, but Rodriguez was too far gone. Smith would gain some ground but simply run out of time. Nonetheless, his third-place nish would be more than enough to get him to the main event.
Jordon Smith shook his holeshot blues in the main and got off to a great start in second place. The one problem with that was that the only rider in front of him was Osborne. Smith struggled to nd his groove in the rst few laps and it allowed Osborne to build a cushion. Smith trailed him all race and stayed consistent but despite cutting into the lead at times, he just could not get close enough to chal- lenge the points leader. He would nish the race right where he began, second place. it was his best nish since his victory at Daytona, but he now slides to fteen points back of Osborne heading into the last round.
32 GRITMOTO • APRIL 22, 2018