Jordon Smith took home a historic win in round four of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250SX West Region this weekend in Glendale. The win was the fifth of the 28-year-old’s career, but the first in the short AMA Motocross and Supercross history of Triumph Racing. It took the British motorcycle company just 13 attempts to land on the top step of an AMA Supercross event; a very impressive feat and certainly attests to the entire program and people involved in making come together. The win was also the first for Triumph’s team gear sponsor FXR! Certainly, a night to remember for Smith as he not only made history, but reestablished himself as a serious threat to this championship as the series takes a couple of weeks off.
How did it happen? Smith was solid all night, qualifying P3 on the day and getting in the mix of the Julien Beaumer/ Haiden Deegan battle that is becoming a weekly occurrence. In race one, he started P3 and was able to avoid a downed Beaumer and followed Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing's Cole Davies all the way to the finish, crossing the line less than a second behind the rookie. Smith trailed by less than two seconds the entire race but could not get in position to make a pass.
In race two, Smith crossed the finish in fifth at the end of lap one. He made a quick pass on Honda HRC Progressive's Jo Shimoda and ran fourth for much of the race before making pass on Michael Mosiman to secure third and a five-point score heading into race three, tying him with Deegan for second, and trailing Cole Davies’ 1-1 tally.
Then, Davies went down early in race three. Smith started second and followed Mosiman for a couple laps before making the pass for the lead and riding away with the victory. His 2-3-1 scores sealed the deal on the overall and brought him within two points of the series lead.
On the podium, he talked about excited he was to get the win not only for himself, but for the team and everybody involved.
“It’s unbelievable to get the first win for the Triumph brand, this soon into the career for the brand as well,” said Smith.
Triumph only started racing supercross last February, so it took just about one calendar year to net victory number one.
“They’ve been telling me there’s bricks in the UK that have a lot of their accomplishment on them, and there’s one for the first win, so pretty cool to put my name on that and it very special,” Smith explained at the post-race press conference.
When asked about how the bike contributed to getting the win he said, “We have been getting better with the bike set-up all year, just learning at each race we go to. You feel prepared at the practice track, but once you get on the racetracks, they are always different. Tonight, even though it was really hard packed, it had more ruts than what we had seen at Anaheim and stuff in the turns and my bike was handling really good. We made a lot of changes for the whoops through four rounds so feeling more like myself in those and overall, from where we started in October to where we’re at now, just a huge shout to everyone on the team it’s just unreal.”
Smith had two strategies to stay consistent in the Triple Crown. First, don’t fall in the sand, an area where he still struggles. Second, he found a safe, consistent jump line in the toughest rhythm section.
“I was struggling with that big rhythm, the one after the whoops, to get the over 3-3. I was very sketchy on it in practice. I just didn’t feel like I could get that every lap of the main. The rhythm I ended up doing, I didn’t do it until the second lap of the first main, and I think I was one of the only guys doing it, that I saw. I was kind of doubling through the middle of it instead of doubling and tripling out over the big. So the team, we just decided, let’s try it for the first main and it it doesn’t work maybe we’ll go to the bigger line, but let’s see how it goes. It ended up going well. Just a good decision by the team and everyone.”
Glendale - 250SX West
February 1, 2025Rider | Hometown | Motos | Bike | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | Belmont, NC ![]() | 2 - 3 - 1 | Triumph |
2 | ![]() | Temecula, CA ![]() | 3 - 2 - 4 | Yamaha |
3 | ![]() | Waitoki, New Zealand ![]() | 1 - 1 - 8 | Yamaha |
4 | ![]() | Lake Havasu City, AZ ![]() | 4 - 7 - 2 | KTM |
5 | ![]() | Sebastopol, CA ![]() | 6 - 4 - 3 | Yamaha |
Of course, good starts helps in a Triple Crown, and Smith and his bike can get them.
“My confidence in the starts has definitely gone up this year, my bike’s coming off the gate really good, so I was feeling good with that coming into a Triple Crown,” Jordon elaborated on his day, “We really just executed everything we talked about all day with the starts and the rhythm, and getting through the sand every lap without falling, so yeah it was good execution and working together as a team all day.”
“The bike is amazing, and I think a lot of people maybe questioned me leaving Star, but I’ve believed in these guys since day one and we worked our butts off all off season, and it really shows,” Smith spoke on the podium about the transition to Triumph from Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing.
He expanded on that at the press conference saying, “Everyone at Triumph Racing has won with other teams in the past so it is a very good crew of people over there. I would say we kind of started with a clean slate. Myself, the team, the bike, everything. We just have worked really hard on each aspect of racing. The starts, the bike, my riding, technique. It has been awesome training with [Mike Brown] Brownie, he’s awesome. Like I said there’s a lot of similarities, we all show up to win every weekend, but the teamwork that everyone puts in at Triumph is kind of unlike any other team that I’ve been on, just everyone working really well together, doing their job and each person trusting in the other person to do their job.”
Triumph Racing has officially put themselves on the map as a premier team in the sport. Now attention turns to Austin Forkner to see if he can get Triumph their second win next weekend, when the 250 East Championship starts up in Tampa, Florida. However, when the West Coast returns in Arlington, Smith will look to repeat and add another accomplishment for the brand. Can he put a red plate on his Triumph TF 250-X?
Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() | Lake Havasu City, AZ ![]() | 87 |
2 | ![]() | Belmont, NC ![]() | 85 |
3 | ![]() | Temecula, CA ![]() | 84 |
4 | ![]() | Waitoki, New Zealand ![]() | 72 |
5 | ![]() Jo Shimoda | Suzuka, Japan ![]() | 68 |