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It was nice to see Austin Stroupe win the Indianapolis 250 main event as he probably should’ve won the previous weekend in Atlanta. The Georgia Dome crowd saw Stroupe checking out for the win when a simple stall and subsequent inability to restart knocked him from the top of the box to a lowly (for him) seventh place. He’s fifteen points down from his teammate Christophe Pourcel with five rounds to go, and the climb to the top is going to be steep, it’s great to see Austin doing well again.

After winning the Houston Supercross last year, and then in a complete shocker, the opening national at Glen Helen, Stroupe was firmly establishing himself as a rider on the rise. That’s when he pulled a disappearing act. Poof, he was gone.

There were mononucleosis reports from Kawasaki and some rumored off track excesses that a young man who is relatively rich might go through, but whatever the reason, Stroupe was gone for the rest of the summer. Nobody really knew if he was okay for the longest time until he showed up at Steel City.

{LINKS}It was a long winter spent getting his career and health back on track. Stroupe is showing that he’s put in the work and is back to where he was last summer – in the fight for a Supercross Lites Championship and one of the contenders for this summer’s 250 Motocross Championship. Bravo Austin, bravo.