Well he did it again. Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Nate Thrasher turned a so-so season around with a stunning victory, just like he did in 2021. Thrasher now has three career wins in 250SX and virtually no other good results to speak of, with a career results line in supercross of this: 11-20-10-9-9-1-4-1-12-5-8-4-7-21-11-5-9-1.
Thrasher’s win on Saturday in Utah was even more impressive because this was the Dave Coombs Sr. East/West Showdown, meaning a double stack of talent from both coasts. Nate was fast immediately, so fast that he had to get around his teammate Christian Craig, even though Craig was trying to win the title, because he knew this was his night to win. He passed Craig and then caught and passed Hunter Lawrence, who had won three in a row, to win it. Lawrence said he was feeling low on energy, but he saved enough for one last charge, and Thrasher nearly went down under pressure, but the Tennessee native recovered to snag the win. It takes a rough season and immediately makes it look a lot better.
Nate, that was a great ride. I want to go through the race a little bit with you. Early you were super aggressive. We all could tell what you wanted. You got up front. Then near the end, Hunter starts coming back on. What were you feeling four, five laps from the end? A couple mistakes in the whoops. Just want to know what you were thinking and processing at that moment to help close it out.
Nate Thrasher: I made a big mistake in the whoops. My hand fell off. I had like a three-second lead at that point and I was just trying to maintain that. The track got really tricky at the end. The whoops got beat down pretty good. I think I didn’t move lines in the whoops quick enough, so that kind of hurt me a little bit. Then I just made three big mistakes in three laps in the whoops and he closed in quite a bit. I just tried to ride defensive at that point. Just too many mistakes in the whoops really cost me. The track was tricky. I felt like I rode a good race in the beginning. I felt like I had really good speed in the beginning. Midway through I felt like I managed it really good. Then at the end, I kind of didn’t get really tired, but just the altitude got me a little bit, I think.
Hunter Lawrence was asked about catching Thrasher late in the race:
Hunter, Nate had the big lead for a while and then did start getting a little squirrelly in the whoops there at the end. Did you re-lock in and maybe calm down and get faster, or was it just steady, steady, and once he started to make mistakes, you were catching him?
Hunter Lawrence: Yeah. It was tough. I was feeling it from the start. He got me on the first few laps. I was jumping through the whoops, which I lost a lot of time on. I was watching the clock. I didn’t have that extra bit of energy and strength tonight, so I was kind of watching the clock trying to time gassing myself out. It was tough. It was a good race. It was really close in a few spots and stuff. I thought if I could have gone a little more, may have crossed the line and may have put both of us on the ground. So, just kept it clean and it was a good race.
Nate, what was it that made tonight come together like that? You pretty much executed everything. Did something change, or was this just the night that it all glued together?
Thrasher: I think like you said it just kind of all glued together. The season has not been my best. All you guys can tell that. I haven’t had good starts. I’ve been 15th, 16th off the start and you just can’t do that. So that’s a bit of a main key there. Then when I have been up front I just haven’t rode my best. I don't know if it’s just nerves. I don’t really think it’s that, but it may be. I finally just felt good tonight on the track. The track was difficult. Our bike is really good here. I just felt like I could get it off to a good start and I could just put my laps in, and that’s what I did. I felt like I did a good job of that tonight.
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Thrasher Align Media ![Thrasher holding off Hunter Lawrence at the finish line.]()
Thrasher holding off Hunter Lawrence at the finish line. Align Media ![Craig and Thrasher celebrating after the race.]()
Craig and Thrasher celebrating after the race. Align Media ![]()
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With you, three wins on your career. That’s an astounding number considering it’s only your second year in. Aside from the shoulder injury that you had last summer, do you feel you’re better than you were before then last year? Just everything that you’ve learned an on the bike experienced now that you’re on the team?
Yeah, definitely. We didn’t have a good off-season this season. We were planning on doing East Coast, and some things got shuffled around, so I had four weeks on the bike coming into the West Coast. My shoulder was still kind of bugging me through the first four rounds. Just didn’t have the strength built up. I could only get about seven laps out of it and it would kind of go away. So, I felt like those first six races were really tough just because they were so close back to back. We didn’t have a break, so there was no way to build strength in it because you have to rest during the week to go back racing on the weekend. So, that was a really tricky thing we had to deal with. Then I felt like once we got to that break, I could go in the right direction. I felt like Seattle was a good race for me. I was battling for a podium and ended up going down. Then Atlanta I came from way back and got fifth. So, I felt like there were some positive trending, and then Denver wasn’t good. We just put our head back down and came in here just wanting to do the best. We knew Christian had to get 14th or better, but my job was just to go out there and win the race and that’s what I did.
Talking about Christian there, how were you playing it on those laps when when you were behind Christian? It was clear you were a little bit faster than him, and Hunter was getting away. I’m sure you didn’t want to mess with the teammate for a title. How did you play all that?
I felt like two or three laps before, I felt like I had the speed to make a pass, but it was tricky because he was pushing the limit, too. I didn’t want to go in and run it too deep in the turn to make him go down or anything, so I just kind of stayed behind him a little bit and then I got past him. Then I felt like I had the speed to go chase down Hunter in the beginning of the race. I got around him. He kind of moved over a little bit once I had the line. Just tried to run down Hunter and then once I got around him, I just tried to check away. At the end, just too many mistakes. He made a good race. Kudos to him.
Watch the full 250SX post-race press conference below:
