MITCHELL OLDENBURG | GRIT-215 | 250SX

MITCHELL OLDENBURG | GRIT-215 | SX 250

As roost ricocheted from the chest and visor of Mitchell Oldenburg in practice, it was clear that this track in Glendale would be one of the fastest we'd seen thus far in the series. This stadium was one-of-a-kind on the Monster Energy Supercross circuit, and encouraged those who embodied (albeit a brief bit) of outdoor prowess to rise to the top of the leaderboard as the narrative of this 250cc West Coast Championship would play out - which set the stage for Oldenburg's run following the conclusion of practice. His explosiveness from the starting grate would have him darting into turn number-one (after the red-flag restart, due to an unfortunate crash from Stilez Robertson) with his elbows wide, the rear wheel spinning in the corners that followed amongst the moist top soil that was still able to be captured. His flow throughout the opening two laps would be equated to a position inside the top-seven, but as always, he yearned for more. The crowd would be captivated as he leapt over the second (of two) "SX" triples, scrubbing atop the face while looking over his left shoulder to see none other than Kawasaki's Carson Mumford only seconds behind him! All the while beneath his helmet he continued to grit his teeth, coupling his determination with an outpouring of throttle housing expansion as he neared the finish-line. Located around the sixth-place position with roughly three minutes to go, he would be mindful of avoiding the subtle pot-hole that had emerged on the face of the tunnel jump; which had caused those behind him a series of problems as they applied too much pressure to the front wheel. Though all in all, as the dust settled for the first outing, he would be sound within a final position of sixth. Round two was then next to be tackled, as he and fellow members of the West Coast brigade would converge with aspirations of being with a range of podium outcomes. Ruts were now entrenched through the exit of every rimmed corner on the course, forcing him to choose amongst a series of ravines before bursting into rhythm sections and whoop-pad alike...but his vision upon the Honda CRF250 was pristine and had him avoiding the most problematic of lines long before he entering into a specific groove. One by one, the laps of round two would be stockpiled in the record book; keeping Mumford at bay while sweeping through the acute angle of the right-handed corner preceding the start straightaway. His momentum wouldn't taper as the halfway and three-quarter mark of the moto were completed, eventually finalized in the seventh-place position. This led to the finalé, where implications of a high-placing overall were of the utmost importance and on the line amongst he and riders like Robbie Wageman. He would be categorized in the position of fourteenth for quite sometime, before unleashing a myriad of notable circuit times around the midway mark; finding immense momentum in the platform of obstacles before the opening "SX" triple and whoop section that followed. And through a pattern of mistake-free laps, his eventual residing position of twelfth would be noteworthy - and equate him to seventh overall as all concluded in Glendale.

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