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. 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? 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. 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 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. Triumph only started racing supercross last February, so it took just about one calendar year to net victory number one. 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.
Smith had two strategies to stay consistent in the Triple Crown. Second, he found a safe, consistent jump line in the toughest rhythm section. I was very sketchy on it in practice. I was kind of doubling through the middle of it instead of doubling and tripling out over the big. It ended up going well. Just a good decision by the team and everyone. I would say we kind of started with a clean slate.
