Smage Doubles Down in MotoTrials
Championship Opener
D
efending AMA MotoTrials
Champion Pat Smage picked
up right where he left off last
year—winning. The FactoryONE
Sherco team rider dominated both
days of competition at the Trials
Training Center in Sequatchie,
Tennessee, April 2-3. Smage
finished well clear of his nearest
main competitor, Josh Roper,
both days, each day counting as a
round in the championship.
Smage dropped just four
points to Roper's 32 after the first
day of competition.
"Today started out pretty shaky
I would say!" Smage said. "I
didn't feel that confident or com-
fortable from the start, as I hit my
skid plate and my boot on a few
rocks. After that, I started getting
frustrated and wasn't having fun.
From there, I changed my mind-
set to have fun and not focus on
the final placement. You never
know how long you will have to
ride Nationals, so I decided to
just go have fun and not worry if
I won or lost, and surprisingly, I
didn't dab from there, I cleaned
the rest of the day."
Day (round) two was much
closer between Smage and the
GasGas rider, Roper. After the
first of three loops, Smage led
by just one mark over Roper, 6-7.
Smage managed to gain another
two marks on Roper in loop two
and a clean ride in section three
sealed the deal for Smage, fin-
ishing the day a total of 10 marks
ahead of Roper, 7-17.
"Overall, it went really well, but
I started off with a big mistake
in section six. I took one more
point on the loop, so I was a
bit frustrated, but I knew what I
needed to do to clean it up. I did
have another dab there on the
second loop but went clean on
the third. I had some good rides
and some shaky rides that I really
had to work for to stay clean.
In the end, I am happy with the
result."
CN
SATURDAY
PRO (Top 5)
1. Pat Smage (She) 4
2. Josh Roper (GG) 32
3. Alexander Niederer (Bet) 34
4. Alexander Myers (Sco) 49
5. Daniel Blanc-Gonnet (GG) 70
SUNDAY
PRO (Top 5)
1. Pat Smage (She) 7
2. Josh Roper (GG) 17
3. Alexander Myers (Sco) 38
4. Daniel Blanc-Gonnet 39
5. Will Myers (She) 46
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Defending champ Pat
Smage won the opening
two rounds of the
2022 AMA MotoTrials
Championship at the
Trials Training Center
in Tennessee.
PHOTOS: STEPH VETTERLY
