There was supposed to be a hierarchy in the 250SX East Region this year. A status quo, of sorts, was to be followed. And through two rounds, everything went according to plan.
That was four weeks ago. We’ve now entered new territory.
When the season began, the East Region was split into four tiers. You had the favorites (and those with factory rides): Justin Bogle, Marvin Musquin, Jeremy Martin, Martin Davalos, and Joey Savatgy. The veterans: Matt Lemoine, Kyle Cunningham, Jimmy Decotis, and Vince Friese. The unproven rookies: Dakota Alix, Nick Gaines, RJ Hampshire, Colt Nichols, Luke Renzland, and Jordon Smith. And the unknown: guys like Anthony Rodriguez, Arnaud Tonus, Kyle Peters, Mitchell Oldenburg, Jace Owen, AJ Catanzaro, etc. These were riders that you knew had talent, riders you knew could blow you away with speed. Riders, though, that for one reason or the other, you just weren’t sure what type of results to expect.
Through two rounds, the field followed the natural order. Musquin, Bogle, Martin, Savatgy, Davalos, Lemoine, and Friese occupied the top seven spots in points. The rookies showed speed but dealt with injuries and a steep learning curve. And the unknowns were sporadic—drawing into pre-season stereotypes. These things were what we expected from them.
Over the last few weeks, though, this natural order has started to give way, and some riders have garnered breakthrough finishes. Lemoine and Friese have struggled with injuries, while Davalos started fading with a bout of Epstein-Barr. Almost overnight, the unknown has replaced the expected. Rodriguez, formerly crash prone, has started to dabble in consistency. Colt Nichols has started to show more than just fast qualifying times. Peters has gone back to 2013 form. Jimmy Decotis has gone back to being Jimmy D. Hampshire and Smith have finally gotten healthy, and Owen and Oldenburg are putting the pieces together.
The hierarchy had a chink in its armor.
"I'm feeling healthier than I did the first few rounds,” said Hampshire before Detroit in a team release. “I get some training in during the week now, so it's building my confidence up for the weekends. I had some injuries I was trying to get through, and I wasn't able to really ride much during the week. Being able to ride and train has helped out a lot."
Now read the quote again. Words like “healthy” and “confidence” and “injuries” are the predominant talking points. Confidence can change faster than a flick of the switch. Take Jace Owen as an example: superfast as an amateur but struggled as a rookie a season ago. And through four rounds this year, it didn’t look much better. He failed to qualify for the opener then ran into a buzz saw of three consecutive nineteenth-place finishes. Then the light bulb popped on in Indy. He scored his first career top-ten there, then led qualifying briefly in Detroit, and secured a second consecutive top-ten in the main event. Like we said, it happens fast.
Or, take Rodriguez. The Venezuelan will blow you away with his pure speed, but could never tie all the pieces together. A fifteenth at the opener didn’t change his label. Then, the light bulb popped on. He was suddenly ultra-consistent with three consecutive top-tens. He relapsed in Indy, but rode to a brilliant top-five in Detroit—the first of his career.
Colt Nichols is a rookie, fresh from a season in AMSOIL Arenacross last year, and a former Team Green standout. He’s been super fast in practice so far, but didn’t have any results to show for it until the last two races, where he went 8-6.
When you pluck 17- and 18-year-olds from the amateur ranks, it’s hard to know what you’re going to get. These guys are young, immature, and for some, have responsibilities for the first time in their lives. Some adjust, some don’t. Patience is required. Not everyone wins right away—heck, most don’t. Maybe we didn’t see this coming—the rise of A-Rod and Owen and Nichols—but maybe we should have. Like we said, it can happen fast.
