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JORDON SMITH
250 SX / 3RD
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> Jordon Smith has quietly been having the best season of his young career. He has managed to eliminate the one weakness that has always held him back. His consistency. If it wasn’t for getting bumped off the track late in the race in Toronto, the Red Bull Troy Lee KTM product would have finished in the top five in every race so far this season. He kicked off the season with a stellar career best finish in second but has not managed to crack the podium since then. He entered Indianapolis looking to hop up on the box once again and regain third place in the points standings.
Smith looked fresh and fast in qualifying practice by going out and securing the second quickest time. He gelled well with the course and was excited to get out there and put on a show come race time. Smith started in second place in his heat race after a great start. He put pressure on early race leader Adam Cian- ciarulo and quickly made a pass two laps into the race. After that he went on to secure the victory and a transfer to the main event. Everything seemed to be clicking for the rider from North Carolina.
Smith nailed another stellar start in the main event emerging from lap one in fourth place. He immediately linked up with his teammate Alex Martin just ahead of him in third and the pair went after the leaders, Osborne and Savatgy. Smith and Martin stayed close but just outside of striking distance of the leaders. Mid- way through the race Smith decided he wanted to get around his teammate and started to apply some heavy pressure. He hounded Martin and it eventually paid off as Martin bobbled and went down. Unfortunately for Smith, he was left with nowhere to go and got hung up on his bike. He lost valuable time on the leaders and was forced to ride on to a lonely third place finish. He accomplished his goal of getting back on the podium and he closed to within three points of Cianciarulo for third in the points.
38 GRITMOTO • MARCH 19, 2017