Five rounds into the 2025 250SX East Division championship chase, Nate Thrasher of the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing organization is tied for fourth in points with injured teammate, Max Anstie, and remains 21 points out of the championship lead with five rounds yet to be run before the series concludes on Saturday, May 10, 2025, at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah.
A racer who has experienced wild ups-and-downs as far as race results consistency throughout his young career, which was launched in 2021, it all recently came right for the rider out of Livingston, Tennessee, when he strung together 3-3-2 race scores for the overall victory inside Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama.
Coming off an off-season where he was “building, building, building,” and working on structure, as well as on-bike technique, Thrasher has hovered in and around the top 10 during the first five rounds of the 2025campaign.
“Yes, no doubt I have been building,” agreed the Birmingham Supercross winner from his homebase this week. “I got hurt the week after the first race at Tampa and ever since then it was just kind of grinding with that injury. Eventually, I was able to get back on the bike and ride it a little bit during the week and was able to get back to feeling like my old self and, yeah, I felt really good over the weekend in Birmingham.”
His best finish leading into Birmingham was a fifth place score at Detroit, and Thrasher talked about just how it came together in Alabama.
“I felt confident in Birmingham,” explained Thrasher. “I felt like the expectation was to win and, yes, that was pretty much it. I felt like I was cool, calm, and collected before and it’s always good when you feel that way. It was good.”
With five main events yet to be run in the 2025 East Region series - Foxborough, Philadelphia, East Rutherford, Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City, respectively – Thrasher wants to continue to forge ahead with the same form and mindset that powered him last Saturday.
“Yeah, I want to go at the rest of this season with the same mindset I did with the last race,” pointed out the 22 year-old. “I’m healthy now and just trying to go out there and do the best we can, but I think we’re going to be in a good spot come the next round. I think that normally once I get going and once I get the confidence, it is easier to keep doing it. I think these next rounds are going to be really good and hopefully we can battle for this championship.
“You know, ever since my rookie year I wasn’t really expected to do anything in the sport, but we ended up surprising ourselves,” furthered Thrasher. “And then after that I still had to learn a lot. Yeah, I was 17 years old and there was still a lot to learn at that time. Just now I am finally older, stronger, and more mature and I just kind of know what I need to do. I’ve crashed a decent amount and that’s pretty much where my inconsistency comes from. It comes from the crashes. I know the speed is there. I’m just trying to get a little bit stronger in some areas and prevent those crashes.”
A six-time main event winner this far in his 250cc career, Thrasher is confident in his speed and determination and is determined to charge toward additional race victories.
“Yeah, exactly. Knowing you can win is obviously a good thing to have back there when you need to lean on it. You know, like, ‘I’ve been here before and I’ve done this before.’ That’s definitely good for the mental stuff.”
Thrasher has come up against stiff competition in 2025 in the form of driven and talented pilots like Tom Vialle, RJ Hampshire, and Seth Hammaker, and is encouraged by the results he has posted throughout the championship march.
“Yeah, no doubt the competition is tough,” said Thrasher. “I mean there are a lot of race winners. I think coming into this year in the East Division, there are the most race winners ever. So yeah, it's super stacked. I think it’s going to be a fight every weekend, so there are a lot of fast guys and it’s not going to get any easier, but I think I will be good.
“It's definitely not over yet,” continued Thrasher on the championship struggle. “There is still a lot of racing to be done and anything can happen. Just look at my teammate, Max Anstie, this weekend. He ended up going down and it happened that fast. I’ve been on the other side of it, so I know just to stay the course. Yeah, if we can click off some wins here, I think we’ll be right back in it. I think the rest of these East Region races will suit me well. I’m excited to get up there. I think the dirt is going to suit me quite good. The tracks get a little bit ruttier. I’m just excited to go to Boston and Foxborough. I’ve never been there before. Yeah, that’s our next race and I’m full focus for that. I’m also looking forward to Salt Lake. I’ve won Salt Lake before, so that obviously gives me a bunch of confidence going into that round. I think that if we can get there with a chance, we’ll be in a good spot. I have a lot of confidence there. And yeah, I’ve never been to Philadelphia and never been to Pittsburgh, so a couple new stadiums we're going to to for the first time, so I think it’s going to be cool.”
Nate Thrasher’s approach for the second half of the 250SX East Division is to simply focus sharply on the potential to win more main events.
“I mean right now I think the main focus is to just try and win races,” he nodded. “That’s pretty much where we are at right now. I think the main goal is championship or bust. I mean I’d be happy with a couple race wins. Yeah, we’ll see. I think as now I'm just focused on it race-by-race. As far as the title, I think we are still in it. There is a lot of racing left. We have two more [East/West Showdown] races and anything can happen. If you get fifth place in an [East/West Showdown], that’s pretty good. And if I win, that’s a 10-point swing right there. 21 points behind right now seems like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things, it's really not.”
Taking down the nation’s premier 250cc racers last week in the 250SX Showdown at Birmingham has infused Thrasher with additional confidence.
“No doubt it was so good to win. That’s probably the hardest race to win that we have, so I think if you can win one of those, you are the best in the class. Yeah, it is super special and it gives you a lot of confidence, no doubt. I feel like I’m more physically fit and technically sound on the bike than I've ever been. All around, technique and fundamentals, I think this is the best I’ve ever been. By far.”
