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COLT NICHOLS
250 MX / 8TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Colt Nichols returned to action this summer, after a broken upper arm sidelined him in the middle of the Supercross season, at our round at Tennessee back in June. He struggled with some crashes that day, but he rebounded instantly the following weekend at Southwick. There he earned himself an impressive sixth overall on one of the hottest days of the year to go along with one of the roughest tracks. However, since then, he has been pretty hot or cold. His only top ten nish at our last three rounds was at Red Bud with a ninth place so
he was hoping he could get back closer to that top ve overall here at Unadilla. Nichols put forth a solid effort in the morning qualifying practice sessions. He managed to put down the ninth fastest lap time of the class and ended up throwing down the second fastest lap time in the second session after the track was saturated with all the rain. He looked primed to have a good, fun day in the mud. Nichols got his day going with a decent start. He emerged from the opening lap in eighth place but didn’t stay there long. He passed three riders on
lap two and positioned himself in fth. He locked in there right behind his teammate and points leader, Aaron Plessinger. He was hanging there with the lead group and appeared
to be being the aggressor and it looked like he might make some moves, but he would end up crashing on lap six. This sent him back to seventh. He remounted with seemingly no
one around and would nish the race there in a quiet seventh place. It was a good ride for Nichols, but he has to be frustrated with his fall because he potentially had a podium perfor- mance within reach. He would look to get back after it in moto two. Nichols started the moto in around eleventh place after the rst lap. He did not get the greatest of starts and strug- gled to make passes early. He stayed stagnant there for the rst few laps before capitalizing on a Chase Sexton mistake to move into tenth. The track proved quite tough to pass on in the second moto because one line around the track was dry and the rest was still a wet, sloppy mess. This resulted in Nichols being unable to make any more moves throughout the duration of the race. He’d nish right there in tenth. His 7-10 moto scores earned him eighth overall. It’s his second-best nish of the year but he surely wants to be closer to the top ve.
28 GRITMOTO • AUGUST 12, 2018