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COLE THOMPSON
250 SX / 19TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / WILSON
>> After missing the first round of the 250 East Coast Series former top
5 competitor Cole Thompson of Canada found himself playing catch up to the rest of the field. While the season hasn’t gone as expected thus far Cole has continued to plug away at the series and has been near the top ten at multiple races. It seemed like round five in Indianapolis was going to be the round where Cole finally made it happen. Cole started the day off qualifying 9th fastest with an impressive 48.901 lap time. The KTM Canada/ Parts Canada/ Thor rider came into his heat race with confi- dence, getting himself to 5th place early on. The only rider who made their way past the #72 was title contender Joey Savatgy. When the gate dropped for the main event Cole found himself mid pack fighting for posi- tions. Thompson made his way to 10th after the first two minutes of the big race. Anthony Rodriguez ended up taking the top ten spot away from Cole five minutes in. From there on out the Ktm rider rode a lonely 11th place until the final stages. Only 3 minutes +1 lap remained and Cole dropped back to 12th. This would have tied his best of the season and he would have been happy with that after a rough weekend in Daytona. Disaster struck Thompson just a lap after while he was making his way through the whoops. Cole didn’t finish the race and was seen leaving the track holding his left arm. After a few years of not competing in the su- percross series it seems as Cole has lost a lot of his confidence and isn’t showing a wheel in places he used to. Hopefully the 2016 MX2 Canadian champ will continue to head south of the Canadian border and become a contender once again.
124 GRITMOTO • MARCH 19, 2017