Austin Stroupe on the top of the podium at the 2009 Indianapolis SX – Photo by: Hoppenworld

The last time we saw the twenty-five year-old Austin Stroupe was at the 2011 Las Vegas Supercross. The former amateur prodigy, multiple main event winner in the 250SX class and 250MX AMA National winner took a few wrong turns and ended up in an early retirement. Rumors were everywhere as to what those wrong turns were, and while we have our own opinions and could speculate with everyone, we’ll just say Stroupy has recently made a U-Turn and looks to be heading back to where he belongs: to a podium near you.

Last weekend, Stroupe returned to the big stage with an appearance at the 2016 Cincinnati Arenacross. The #981 was definitely not at his preferred level, but the former factory rider plugged away on a borrowed bike to a 14th overall in the Arenacross Class. A rider that used to win Supercross main events might have gotten discouraged with this result, but Stroupy pushed hard, completed every lap and used it as a building block.

Stroupe is back after today for the Baltimore AX, and he is beginning to show his former speed. In timed qualifying just now, Stroupe topped the leaderboad in the premier Arenacross class. Does this mean Stroupe is 100 percent back? No, it simply means that he is beginning to find that magic he left behind in 2011, and that’s got to be a great feeling.

There’s nothing better than a comeback story. Unfortunately, because Motocross and Supercross are such a young man’s game, we seldom get to write about one. This is far from a comeback story so far, but because Austin was such an extreme talent at one point, we are hoping this is simply chapter one. Check out the Arenacross qualifying times from the Baltimore AX earlier today and video from Cincinnati below.

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Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.