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00:00He's really been an under-reported story so far this season.
00:04He's been battling for podiums.
00:05He gets to that crash last weekend,
00:07then he gets a third in race one.
00:09He has a chance to be back on the podium.
00:11You see him sitting there in fourth right now.
00:13This will be a great way to continue this East Coast division
00:16for Dax to get up back on the podium.
00:20Well, a very well-reported story is the success of this man here,
00:23Devin Simonson, after receiving his guitar there after the fact.
00:28Without the podium there we saw last week in his first podium of the year,
00:32just thinking to where he has come from.
00:33He spent a couple of summers just working away at the Club MX track there,
00:39just paying for himself, hoping for this seat to open up
00:43so he could come and compete.
00:44And he rewarded them last weekend with their first podium.
00:48Incredible performance,
00:50and we're not seeing it wavering at this point.
00:52He's carrying on.
00:54How about this guy?
00:56Derek Kelly, the 27-year-old from Boise, Idaho.
00:598th, 8th, sees him 7th overall.
01:02And he's in a tie for 10 with a factory Kawasaki rider in Nick Romano.
01:07He's ahead of Nick so far on the scoreboard tonight.
01:10If he beats him here in this race, he will be in the top 10 by himself.
01:15That's a tremendous effort for MX6 Racing, a first-year team,
01:20and the privateer Kawasaki team going up against the factory one.
01:24Plenty of great stories here.
01:26More to unfold.
01:27Third and final race, 250 East.
01:29Cleveland, let's do it again.
01:34Davies on the inside with a great start.
01:37Oh, it looks like Steph goes down in that first corner.
01:41Got pinched off.
01:42Oh, no.
01:43Yep, just got pinched off right there.
01:45Nate Thrasher got a terrible jump off the gate,
01:48but it looks like he slides up in that number three position,
01:50but he got up front.
01:52Is that...
01:53That's Davies.
01:54Davies, Cole Davies up front.
01:55Doesn't look the same out there.
01:57Yeah, Landon Gordon there in second position,
02:00but this is a great spot for Nate Thrasher to be in.
02:04Take a look at the restart.
02:06Yeah.
02:07You can tell.
02:08Nah, Nate got a bad start,
02:09but Cole starts pinching these guys off.
02:12You can see number 10, Seth that may go on the inside.
02:14He tries, he tries, but, yep, just goes down really easy to happen.
02:19And that's a bummer because it was by his teammate.
02:21It was his teammate.
02:21But Nick didn't do anything wrong.
02:23He just ran out of real estate.
02:24Worst case scenario, unfortunately, for Seth Amica
02:28because his arch rival here is leading,
02:31and he is way down with a lot of work to do from 16th place.
02:36Plug to the SMX track crew right here.
02:39They have been doing overtime,
02:40and they have made a great racetrack here for these racers this afternoon.
02:47It's a lot better than what I thought it was going to be.
02:50Those ruts on this rhythm.
02:52I think eventually these guys would try to get off rhythm and kind of start jumping over that
02:56because the fast line earlier today, these guys won't be able to hit it, at least at this point.
03:01But Landon Gordon switched to gear.
03:03I mean, kind of threw me off right there, Lee.
03:04All right, take the folks at home into your two respective worlds.
03:08When you were youngsters, when you first went pro, and you were in your first few weekends as a pro,
03:15were you doing as well as this guy?
03:17Like, think about back to your day and tell the folks.
03:20Well, my first race, for sure not.
03:22I couldn't control my emotions like Landon Gordon did.
03:25I got 17th overall, but I did win the next win.
03:28But I think you won your first one, didn't you, James?
03:30I was close. I ended up second my first one, but I crashed by 50 times that day.
03:35Luckily, I had two guys take each other off, ended up on the podium.
03:38But I did win the second one.
03:39But that being said, these guys are just, they're built right.
03:42You can go back to the XMX Next program and the opportunities that these guys get.
03:47It's not a stranger to see them come in here in the second race and be on the podium
03:51because everything, all the success around them, they got it set up for them to do good.
03:56Well, and they have so many assets around them, and they're practicing with these riders all the time,
04:02every single day, so it's more realistic, and they kind of know what that feels like, I believe.
04:07It gives further credence to the program known as SMX Next
04:11to get the youngsters out a handful of times on these big, big stages.
04:18Bottom box is Seth Hamaker working his way through.
04:21Last time we spoke to you about him, he was 16th. He's inside the top 10 now in 8th.
04:25That's a heck of a comeback, James.
04:28It is, and truthfully, if he gets a few more spots, you know, he might have an opportunity to get
04:33with Cole
04:34because as they stand right now, Cole's sitting on 10, Seth is at 12.
04:38Now it should be 11.
04:40I'm going to have an opportunity with 6 1⁄2 now, almost 7 minutes left in this,
04:43to be able to still get up and make some points up on the leader up front.
04:47That's right.
04:48I mean, you have to assume, oh, there's this teammate Nick Romano laying down there, or he's up, but...
04:56Oh, Thrasher closed up on Benick.
05:00Again, gnarly drive for Dax and Benick, especially being Sip, like Will was talking about in one of her reports.
05:08Tough to do on a Triple Crown, that's for sure.
05:11While we watch these guys at the front, can we just go back to Nick Romano for a minute?
05:15Yeah.
05:16That guy was coming into this third and final race in the top 10 after the first two events.
05:22He had to come via the LCQ.
05:24He had the last position in the last chance qualifier.
05:29Oh, man.
05:31That's a shame, because he was doing everything right, and unfortunately, it's all gone.
05:37Not so great for the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team.
05:40You think about Drew Adams getting injured in the last race, and then Romano's teammate and championship hopeful,
05:47Seth Hamaker, went down when he was squeezed a little bit, and now, unfortunately, Nick's gone down.
05:51So it's been a tough day for the men in green.
05:54Yeah, good sign of at least getting on the motorcycle and riding off.
05:57You could tell by that handlebar, he wouldn't be able to ride the bike anyway, at least safely, with it
06:01being so far down.
06:02But, I mean, what a rebound by this guy.
06:05He knew in his third race, winning it overall.
06:08It's probably going to be a long shot, but still getting out here, winning this, you know, possibly winning this
06:12race.
06:13This looks a little more like Nicole Davies we've been seeing the last four weeks.
06:19Really impressed by Landon Gordon's second spot.
06:22And that just shows you how talented all these kids is, but also just the confidence of him being able
06:28to come out and get that second in that second race.
06:30And so far today's been good once they start believing that they belong up here.
06:35Now he's running this, and it won't be a surprise, Lee.
06:37By the way, look at the points on the bottom left of your screen as they run right now.
06:41Thrasher, Gordon, Davies.
06:43It would be a clean sweep by Monster Energy star Yamaha.
06:49And JT Yamaha, the blue crew, continue to just clobber the opposition this year as far as an OEM, a
06:57manufacturer.
06:58They're doing incredible.
06:59They are. They're just churning out results.
07:01And look at Landon Gordon closing down under championship points leader Cole Davies.
07:06And think about what it's been like for this season for him.
07:09He starts on at SMX Next.
07:11He watched Kate Dudney get the promotion to move into the East Coast.
07:14He's kind of biding his time, doing well in SMX Next.
07:17Then he gets thrown into the deep end midway through this championship in his second race as a professional.
07:23If he stays away from that tough walk, he might end up here with a podium.
07:27Yeah, he might end up with a podium.
07:29But if he makes the pass on his teammate, he's going to end up more than that.
07:33We're looking at the Monster Energy star Yamaha, and that's appropriate.
07:37We've already crossed the halfway mark of this last race.
07:39Quick reminder to stock up on Monster Energy drinks at your local True North convenience store.
07:473.44 to go, plus a lap.
07:54Last race for the 250 East.
07:56One race to come.
07:57And part of the same team as the successful one you're looking at on the top box is Justin Cooper.
08:03He's ready to remount and try and win his first 450 overall.
08:09That'd be something special.
08:10You know, I go back to one of the questions you asked me of James Lee and what it was
08:14like.
08:15How did we do our first couple professional races?
08:17And I just think about what that journey was to get there.
08:21And then when you finally got on the podium or you finally got that first win, and it's like, wow.
08:27All that hard work and sacrifice that your family made, that you made as a rider, it's like, it paid
08:34off.
08:35And I just wonder if that's even a thought for Landon right now.
08:39Well, I can tell you a couple more minutes.
08:41He's going to start thinking about that.
08:42And that might take that opportunity to him to push forward and try to get Cole.
08:46Because it's still going to be a great night if he ends up on the podium.
08:50But nonetheless, it's very special for him.
08:54Nate Thrasher might be sitting a little further back than where he would like to be in this race.
09:01But he is the overall leader as far as the points for this Triple Crown.
09:06Will?
09:08The season's been one that could almost look confusing when you look at an 11th to open it at Arlington.
09:14A couple of tenths in there.
09:15And then things started to come together.
09:17So Lewis in the fourth last weekend with a second in here in position potentially to win.
09:22But this is all because of the injury that was his shoulder and was affecting his hand to the point
09:27whereby he had no feeling in it whatsoever.
09:29He had some treatment on that.
09:31He got that fixed.
09:32And everything started to come good.
09:34But Nate is not somebody to make excuses.
09:36And so he was really quite quiet about what he was going through.
09:39And then they had to catch up with the bike a little bit.
09:41So in a place now where he's healthy.
09:43The bike's kind of caught up with his pace now.
09:45And we're starting to see what we know he's capable of.
09:48Yeah, well said.
09:49Can you imagine going back and just being very quiet and finding out.
09:52He's like, well, I haven't really been able to feel my hand and my arm so far this season.
09:57Now I'm getting feeling back.
09:58Well, that kind of made sense.
09:59But great job by Nate.
10:01These lap riders are really tricky for these guys.
10:03You can tell the rain is starting to come back down.
10:05Oh, yeah.
10:08Here we go.
10:09This is a movie we've seen before.
10:12The Club MX duo of Cody Shock, Devin Simonson.
10:16These two who spend an inordinate amount of time riding and training together at the facility in South Carolina.
10:24Yeah, well, the last time.
10:26Find themselves on the track again.
10:27The last time they were next to each other on the track.
10:30It was a wild ride for Devin Simonson.
10:33So that's for sure.
10:36Lapers coming into a place.
10:40Yeah, but these two have done a great job at not slowing each other down too much.
10:44Because I was watching the gap between them and Seth Handmaker.
10:47And Seth was starting to close.
10:48But then all of a sudden this gap stabilized.
10:50And they've done a great job at racing four.
10:53By the way, Stu, we want to help them out.
10:57Get the message out.
10:59Because we spent some time with them in Nashville before the first gate drop.
11:03And they said it's kind of funny to read social media.
11:06And they think they said a lot of people think there's beef between us.
11:10They said it's actually the opposite.
11:11We're really quite good friends.
11:13And we spent a crazy amount of time together.
11:16So it was racing.
11:17Oh, no.
11:17Down goes Devin Simonson.
11:20Oh, tough hit.
11:21Yeah.
11:22I mean, at the end of the day, we all respect them.
11:24You respect your teammate.
11:25But I know underneath the helmet they want to beat each other.
11:27But there's a way of doing that.
11:29And I think they're willing to work together as a team to make sure everybody's better.
11:34And that's what you so far you see that at the Club MX Yamaha team.
11:38Oh, there's some.
11:39It looked like Cody Shock was grabbing his clutch a lot there after he goes down.
11:44So he's going to come out of this corner right here.
11:46And he gets off balance on the takeoff in between that transition.
11:51Nothing he could do there.
11:53Super easy to happen on slick conditions like this.
11:55Oh, my apologies.
11:56I misspoke.
11:57Said it was Devin instead of Cody Shock.
11:59Okay.
12:00Pardon me.
12:01Meanwhile, back up front.
12:02Final lap.
12:03Cole Davies.
12:03By the way, that ball by Shock helped Hamaker move up a position.
12:09So the points are going to be pretty interesting.
12:12And the top two in the championship will come away from this Triple Crown with a race win each.
12:19It's still Nate Thrasher on top of the overall points.
12:22Hamaker and Davies will come away level on points in the overall.
12:27But it's a familiar theme.
12:29Cole Davies winning.
12:31It's the final race.
12:32He won't get the overall.
12:34But his teammate Nate Thrasher most certainly will and continues his wins.
12:39He's had at least one every season for the last five years.
12:43Well done, Nate Thrasher.
12:44Great rebound by both these guys.
12:46Congrats.
12:47Nate D-O-double-G getting his first win of the year.
12:51And here Triple Crown breaking that streak.
12:53Now he's got one with an actual race win.
12:56Great job by the Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha too.
13:01Sweeping that podium like that.
13:03And man, I tell you what, I'm stoked for Thrasher.
13:06But I am really, really happy for the rookie, Landon Gordon, to watch him get his first podium and just
13:13straight up earned it.
13:14Amazing.
13:15Amazing result.
13:16Good well.
13:16This guy here on screen is one of those riders where you say,
13:19Oh boy, I thought that we'd get a little bit more from Nate Thrasher.
13:23And as soon as you say that, bam, he comes out and gets the win.
13:26Again, free agent.
13:28Free agent.
13:28So he probably, he probably just locked up a deal off of this win right here for next year.
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