Heading into the Tampa round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, rumor spread that Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Nate Trasher had torn his ACL. It was possible that Tampa could be a struggle. It…really wasn’t. Yes, Thrasher coughed up a win in the final moments as Hunter Lawrence stole the lead in literally the last corner, but for a guy coming in hurt, second wasn’t bad in the big picture.
Except one thing: Thrasher didn’t even talk about the knee. He doesn’t want to use it as an excuse, and so even when he went out and won this weekend’s Triple Crown race in Arlington, he didn’t want to play the sympathy card.
“I’m not really treating it like I’m hurt,” Thrasher said. “Just doing the same stuff I did in the first round. I felt really good the first round and felt like I had really good speed, but after that crash there wasn’t much in it, I was hurting pretty bad. But we have a really good trainer in Swanny [Gareth Swanepoel] so he just got me back where we needed to be. I’m not treating it any differently, I’m trying to win races just like I wanted to do at the beginning of the year. It’s obviously there, but once you get that adrenaline pumping it’s a lot easier.”
Thrasher says on the weekend he can still go fast. The injury actually plays a larger impact during the week.
“I would say there’s not much [training and practicing] during the week, really,” he says. “We’re kinda limited on what we can do and trying to manage it. We’re just putting our laps in and doing the best we can, but then coming into the races as recovered as we can be. It happened in Houston and that was a bummer, but we’re going to do the best we can, no excuses. Everybody is dealing with something, so we’ll just keep pushing through it.”
Push through is what Thrasher did in Arlington. He actually didn’t win any of the three races, but his 2-2-3 finishes carried him to the top. Hunter Lawrence had a first turn crash that cost him a shot at the overall, and he took podium man Max Anstie with him. Michael Mosiman crashed while leading a race. Then Trasher himself took a tumble in the whoops when it looked like victory was a lock.
“Tonight, this dirt looks like it has lots of traction on it, but it don’t,” said Thrasher in his Tennessee southern drawl. “By the time the main event rolled around, the moisture comes out of it and it gets super slick. The layout was kinda basic but by the time the main events came around it was really tricky. Especially the whoops. The whoops weren’t even big, if they had traction it wouldn’t have been hard at all, but we were just slipping and sliding there. Everywhere, really.”
Thrasher managed to get up from the big crash quickly enough to hold his overall win secure, and then his teammate Jordon Smith went flying in the whoops soon after. It was enough to Thrasher to hold on for his fourth career win, and first of 2023. Yeah, Arlington’s track was tricky, but it still served Thrasher better than Tampa.
“Every track has been gnarly, but that sand in Tampa, good God, I don’t know where they get that stuff from but it’s unbelievable. It’s like powder out there! Nice to get away from that tonight.”
Next Thrasher and the boys will get sand of a different sort, with the nasty black stuff that creates holes, ruts and bumps at Daytona. A long, grueling event might not sound ideal for a rider fighting through a knee injury, but Thrasher isn’t using that as an excuse. In Arlington, he didn’t need one.
