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JORDON SMITH
2450 MX / 8TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> The 2018 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross series has been a struggle more often than not for Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM’s Jordon Smith. The MTF product only had two top ve overall nishes through the rst half of the season and was really struggling with his starts and keeping it on two wheels. At both Red Bud and Southwick, he had a terrible string
of motos that resulted in eighteenth and thirteenth overalls respectively. He and his team went back to the drawing board during the week off after Red Bud and made some serious changes. He suddenly felt much more comfortable on the bike and it resulted in him leading laps at Millville and bringing home fourth overall. His third-place moto one performance
was surprisingly his rst moto podium since 2016 so he was certainly heading in the right direction going into Washougal. Smith looked solid in the pair of morning qualifying practice sessions. He managed to put down the eighth fastest lap time of the class and was right on pace with the rest of the eld. He looked solid and ready to do battle in the motos.
Wearing his team’s custom, special addition Adidas gear, Smith rocketed up front early in moto one. He got a third-place start and found himself right behind Austin Forkner and race leader Joey Savatgy. He immediately started pressuring Forkner for second but while he was doing so, Aaron Plessinger started pressuring him. Pretty soon it turned into a heated four-way battle for the lead. At times it looked like Smith was ready to pass Forkner or Savatgy and then at times it looked like Plessinger would make the pass. It was tight, close racing but as the race wore on, Smith slowly lost a few bike lengths to the two leaders, but he did manage to pull away slightly from Plessinger. He looked to be a sure bet for third at the nish, but he mounted one last late moto charge at Forkner but came up just short. He would indeed nish the moto in third. It was a great moto for Smith as he was right in the fray the entire time. He wanted some more of that action in moto two. Moto two started hor- rendously for Smith. He got caught up in a crash on the rst lap and was forced to start from virtually dead last. He emerged from lap one in thirty-second place. The rest of the moto was just damage control and an all-out charge. He worked his way through the eld and did all he could to move forward. His valiant efforts would get him all the way up to thirteenth place. It doesn’t look good on paper but on a track that was tough to pass all day, it was
a very respectable ride. His 3-13 moto nishes earned him eighth overall. He has to be bummed he missed out on another overall podium, but he just needs to nd his rst moto magic and bottle it for the second motos.
28 GRITMOTO • JULY 29, 2018