NATE THRASHER | GRIT-211 | 250SX

NATE THRASHER | GRIT-211 | SX 250

The impressive performances continued to pile-up for that of Tennessee's Nate Thrasher. The Yamaha athlete would be stellar throughout qualification on Saturday, embodying a spectacular flow while conforming to the ever-changing soil of Daytona. He would generate approval by all in his supporting cast, garnering confidence prior to initiating action in heat one. His clutch release would be nearly perfect when departing from the line, though France's Tom Vialle would narrowly edge ahead with his KTM machine. He chased the Frenchman for a good portion of lap number one, prior to making the pass before heading onto the second circuit. Vialle was rather quick in the sand, but lacked whoop speed; which was an attribute that played into the hand of Thrasher. Continuing to extend his lead as the former MXGP standout was now in the runner-up category, Thrasher's confidence was displayed as he scrubbed the "SX" triple on the circuit while flicking the rear-end toward the crowd at his left. His speed amongst the outer banks of the corners on this immaculate circuit, would be commented on by Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart, and Daniel Blair in the booth; which accompanied him to the white flag circuit, where lap six awaited. Continuing to enact sizable triples and quads throughout the layout, his flat-landing maneuver after the tapered ant-hill would epitomize how bad he wanted this win. And throughout the corners that followed, it was Thrasher who eventually crested the finish-line with a victory-lane designation; taking another win en route to the finalé, later that evening. There wasn't much time to waste as the lights grew brighter in Central Florida, and as the gate(s) crashed for the main event, it was Nate who emerged inside the top-three right alongside Hunter Lawrence and behind Tom Vialle. Thrasher didn't want to waste anytime in passing the Australian and immediately dashed to the outside in the second corner of the sand. Now with the Honda athlete to his inside, Hunter would force Nate to the top of the berm where he fell! A disastrous occurrence on the first lap of action, the Tennessean would be left at the back of the pack as the entire field soared by! But Nate's march to the front was relentless, as he dug-deep into his arsenal of tools and began to pass riders in bundles. Fifteenth became twelfth, which turned into tenth with around eight minutes left on the clock. All seemed to be well, until in the moments thereafter when he tried to seat-bounce a daring quadruple combination (of the step-on, step-off) before the tapered ant hill. His trajectory would shoot him to the right, landing atop tuff-blocks while driving his body into the ground, in a scary sequence to say the least. Somehow, someway though, the drive of Thrasher would get him back on the bike and charging forward once more, though mangled. Eventually returning to a tenth-place residency, despited both bike and body severely battered, the performance from the number twenty-nine would be acknowledged and respected by all in attendance.

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