JORDON SMITH - GRIT 240 250SX

GRIT-240 | 250 SX

Believing that the championship was within his grasp, Jordon Smith had taken time to recover through the off-weekend just seven days ago, but knew that valuable training could be garnered as the East Coast series initiated their portion of racing festivities. The look of Smith as he approached the multitude of qualification sessions in Arizona were ones of discipline and professional demeanor. Putting as much power to the ground as possible when circling the track for qualification, Smith seemed to imperatively charged to the finish line double when lunging for the timing and scoring sensor; knowing that not only was a strong gate choice at stake, but an opportunity to inflict his presence into the mentality of his rivals as they scanned the leaderboard. A replicated intensity was brought to the heat race, where he raced to an opening standing of first, after being forced to restart due to an unfortunate injury sustained by teammate Nate Thrasher. Though once aligned and onto the racetrack once more, the capturing of the green flag was a critical component for Smith to steadily build his lead over Jo Shimoda who trailed. Shimoda was riding well, but Smith seemed to excel on every aspect of the course - including both whoop sections, where his exit and entry speed (via the sand section in the middle) was spectacular. He could withstand the pressure that Shimoda was applying, and would do so through all seven laps of the moto; claiming the win, with a confident style! As gates rose and brackets fell to the ground, the Yamaha rider did his best to navigate through turn number one at the inner most point. Immediately compressing the shock amongst the opening path of obstacles, he would reside second while zeroing-in on the Kawasaki of Levi Kitchen who was ahead. Smith seemed to be the faster rider of the two competitors, and as he blitzed through the latter whoop sections with just over two minutes transpiring, he would make the move to the inside in the corner after the finish line! However Kitchen's rebuttal in the following corner enabled the Washington native to take the lead...only for Smith to counter (and retake the lead) in the same spot in which he originally made the pass, just one lap later! Holding the number one position for a good while thereafter, a wash-out of sorts with around nine minutes on the clock would deter Smith to third. He quickly resumed the fight forward, until leaping through the rhythm lane after the finish line and nearly colliding with Kitchen! A red cross/yellow flag sequence would halt the momentum of all, but Smith couldn't evade the landing position of the Kawasaki rider...sending him flying off track (with a wild crash) but able to remount inside of the top-ten. He was steadily moving forward from a standing just outside of the top-five, but would retake the fourth place position with four minutes remaining on the clock...passing Mitchell Oldenburg at the finish line, along with Julien Beaumer! Now into the previously noted standing of fourth, once and for all, Smith would eventually conclude the moto here...salvaging as many points as possible, after a wild main event run!

More from GRIT