Cole Davies dominates 250SX East in Nashville

COle Davies (Yamaha) took his sixth 250SX East victory of the season in Nashville after a chaotic finale at Nissan Stadium. The New Zealander worked his way from fourth on the grid to the lead and then rode unchallenged to the finish.

Behind Davies, multiple crashes and a time penalty for leader Seth Hammaker resulted in a podium that was thoroughly shaken up.

Technical problems with the timing system caused an eighteen-minute delay to the start. The riders had to wait a long time in the blazing heat, and the nervousness only increased. Daxton Bennick (Husqvarna) took the holeshot, but Nate Thrasher (Yamaha) quickly took the lead. Drew Adams (Kawasaki) rode third, followed by title rivals Davies and Seth Hammaker (Kawasaki).

Thrasher capitalized on his strong start to quickly pass Bennick and grab the early lead.

Davies and Hammaker stayed on each other's wheels and worked their way to the front together, with Davies using his explosive speed in the whoops to pass riders. After barely five minutes, Davies was in the lead, while Hammaker bided his time and shortly thereafter moved up to second place.

Just as he was trying to close the gap to the leader, Hammaker made a costly mistake: his foot hit a tuff block, causing his Kawasaki to shoot sideways and Hammaker to crash. He quickly got back up in fourth place, but a few seconds behind the podium.

Halfway through the final, Davies had built up a lead of more than five seconds and extended that dominant margin further in the rest of the race. Meanwhile, Hammaker dug deep and fought his way back towards the podium. He passed Thrasher for third place and, in the closing stages, was right on Bennick's rear wheel for second position. The Husqvarna rider lost traction with his rear tire in his attempt to keep Hammaker behind him, leading to a collision in which both riders went down. Thrasher slipped past to take second place, while Hammaker got back up in third and Bennick in fourth.

Davies rode on cruise control to his fourth victory of the season with a margin of 17,2 seconds over Thrasher, who capitalized on his rivals' misfortunes to claim his first podium result of the season. Hammaker initially salvaged a podium spot in third position after a race full of setbacks, but was subsequently demoted two positions by stewards after cutting the track while rejoining following his initial crash. As a result, ClubMX Yamaha's Devin Simonson, who passed Bennick on the final lap, moved up to third place — his very first podium result.

Following the penalty for Hammaker, Davies' lead in the championship grew to 29 points with three races to go. Bennick is third, 40 points behind the leader.

250SX East – Hoofdrace Nashville:

1. Cole Davies (YAM), 18 rounds, 2. Nate Thrasher (YAM), +17.242, 3. Seth Hammaker (KAW), +28.384, 4. Devin Simonson (YAM), +31.898, 5. Daxton Bennick (HUS), +34.408, Miller (KAW. 8.73), +17. 7. Coty Schock (YAM), +44.187, 8. Nicholas Romano (KAW), +52.201, 9. Marshal Weltin (KAW), +1 round, 10. Drew Adams (KAW), +1 round, 11. Landon Hartz (YAM), +1 round, (KAW), +1 round, 14. Marcus Phelps (KTM), +1 round, 15. Gavin Towers (HON), +1 round, 16. Ryder Floyd (HON), +1 round, 17. Kyle Peters (KAW), +1 round, 18. Derek Kelley (KAW), +1 round, 19 (Kess, KTM), +1 round. 20. Jeremy Hand (HON), +1 round, 21. Izaih Clark (HON), +2 rounds, 22. Landen Gordon (YAM), +3 rounds

250SX East – Championship standings after Nashville:

1. Cole Davies (YAM) 161pts, 2. Seth Hammaker (KAW) 145pts, 3. Daxton Bennick (HUS) 120pts, 4. Coty Schock (YAM) 103pts, 5. Jo Shimoda (HON) 100pts, 6. Nate Thrasher (YAM) 91pts, 7. Devin Simonson (YAM) 89pts, 8. Henry Miller (KAW) 64pts, 9. Pierce Brown (YAM) 63pts, 10. Derek Kelley (KAW) 52pts

Photos: supercrosslive.com