Interview by: Chase Yocom – Written by: Dan Lamb
In 2017, Troy Lee Designs / KTM’s Jordon Smith was a crash at the Las Vegas finale away from riding into 2018 with the #1e on his KTM, so we were a little surprised we had not seen him on the podium in Arlington or Tampa. Crashes and a mental error or two over the first two rounds gave him a 6-6 scorecard heading into round three, but he finally put it together and landed his first podium of ’18 at the Atlanta SX “Triple Crown” with a consistent 3-4-6 moto score.
While some might already be considering the 250SX East a two-man battle forming between Zach Osborne and Austin Forkner, do not be too quick to count the #45 out just yet. After three rounds in 2017, Jordon was further behind Osborne in the standings than he is now and he was leading the points heading into the finale. Speed is not an issue for the North Carolinian, and he has showed in the past that once he gets on a roll, he can be hard to stop.
After his third overall in Atlanta, MotoXAddicts’ Chase Yocom caught up to Jordon to talk about the first two rounds and the podium at round three of his 2018 campaign.
Jordon, welcome back to the podium. It has to feel good to be back up there.
Yeah, for sure it does. I had a pretty rough first two rounds of the year. It was not how I wanted to start. We’re moving in the right direction, and hopefully I’ll keep climbing that ladder to the top spot.
Speaking of the first couple of rounds, do you think it was just mental errors? Dude, you were riding well. In Dallas [Arlington], I was like, “Holy crap.” You were just hammering the whoops. You looked so fast.
In Dallas, I felt really, really good there all day. The first race of the year we were making changes; everything was working really good and we got into a first turn pileup. There’s not much you can do about that except put your head down and keep charging. I felt really good all day in Dallas and I rode really well. In Tampa last weekend, I rode pretty good there all day, but struggled a little bit in the main with the slicker conditions. In Atlanta I don’t feel like I brought my best riding. I had really good starts and put myself in really good positions—and it’s always good to get on the podium against all these fast guys—but I felt like if I rode more like I did in practice or like I did in Dallas, I would have been on the top step of the podium and got some good points. It doesn’t always work out like that. We’ll go back to MTF [Millsaps Training Facility] and keep pushing.
It was the first 250SX East “Triple Crown” in Atlanta—obviously the 250SX West already had one—what did you think about the format? It’s definitely a little crazy.
It is, 100%. In Atlanta I felt like it was a bit gnarlier ’cause it was like a mile to the pits and back.
Yeah, I didn’t even go to the pits. (laughs)
The security was really, really strict here. They were checking us every time, and it was a process every time just to get down to the gate. That made the turnaround time [in between motos] even quicker. That was tough. It’s a lot of racing and a lot of very intense laps on a track that was demanding. It was a tough night. I’m glad I got through on not my best night and still come out with a podium is really good.
What did you think about the track? It seemed kind of tight, almost like an Arenacross type track?
We were talking in the truck after one of the practices and [Chris] Blose [AX rider] had the fastest segment time in segment two. That was basically that middle part of the track there, and if you looked at it, it was like an AX track. We’re like, “man, he’s pretty good in that section.” I thought it was really good. It was a tough track and it separated people. I didn’t really ride as well as I wanted to. I felt like I could have rode better and should have rode better—woulda, coulda, shoulda. (laughs) On to next weekend. In Daytona, let it hang out and let everything go.
Were you surprised at all on how the track broke down? Was it more than you thought it would or less than you thought it would?
I rode press day on Friday and it was really, really rutted. I’m like, “you know, it’s always like that for press day.” I thought it would kind of harden up a bit and it it didn’t harden up at all. (laughs) It was soft all night. It was softer than years past I think whenever I’ve done Atlanta. I train a few hours from there and we’ve been getting a lot of rain so I don’t know if the dirt got rained on or what. It was definitely pretty tough out there. The track was changing every single lap.
It was soft everywhere except for all those massive rocks.
There were rocks everywhere. I don’t remember Atlanta ever having so many rocks. I don’t know why it did, but it was very rocky.
Alright, Jordon, thank you for the time and congrats on getting your first podium of the year. I’ll let you get out of here.
Thank you, no problem.
Photos by: Simon Cudby
