Page 38 - Issue-46

JORDON SMITH
250 SX / 3RD
IMAGE / LANG WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> The rider with all the momentum entering the series break was Red Bull Troy Lee KTM’s Jordon Smith. The third-year pro reeled off two back-to-back wins, the first of his career, at the last two rounds before the break. Those wins all came straight up over championship rivals Joey Savatgy and Zach Osborne. The surge of confidence from those two races did wonders for Smith whose career has been plagued with inconsistency. It seems like he has finally found his groove in the professional ranks in his first year with the Troy Lee KTM team. He had pulled to within six points of Savatgy and aimed to close that gap down even further as the series resumed in East Rutherford.
Smith struggled quite a bit in qualifying practice. He qualified in seventh but was two seconds off Zach Osborne, who held the fastest lap time of the day. The track was extremely technical and rough so he and his team made the proper adjustments before the gate drops that were to come later in the eve- ning. He got out to an average start in his heat coming out of lap one in fifth. He immediately made statement by running up Joey Savatgy and taking away fourth place. Savatgy hounded him for the remainder of the race but Smith did not fold. The two would work their way around Mitchell Harrison midway to each pick up an extra spot. Smith would hold off Savatgy to the end to take third and an extra bit of confidence into the main.
Smith, usually a great starter, struggled off the gate in the main event emerging from the hectic first lap in eighth position. He made two quick moves to leap up into sixth but his charge tapered off a bit. He dug in behind Geico Honda’s Christian Craig for several laps before finally breaking through on lap thirteen of eighteen. He would also get around Cianciarulo the following lap to take over fourth place and one more championship point. He would end up finishing there in fourth after a quiet come from behind ride. It appeared he would be sitting in an unfavorable points position heading into Las Vegas until it was announced that points leader Joey Savatgy would be docked five position after initially finishing third. This change of events would leap frog Smith to third in the race and into sole possession of the points lead by a single point over Savatgy and race winner Zach Osborne. This completely changes Smith’s mentality on the series finale next weekend in Las Vegas as he goes from outside looking in, to the man with all the power. Can Smith handle the pressure and hold on to win a wild, dramatic 250 East Coast series championship?
38 GRITMOTO • APRIL 30, 2017