Overshadowed by the chaos and the drama at front, Honda HRC rider Colt Nichols made a very respectable 450SX debut finishing sixth in his first ever Main Event. More impressive is that the fact Nichols last race was a year ago in the 250SX West Coast season opener after a big crash that left serious injuries in both arms.
Nichols put the holeshot in the Main Event, but a couple of corner later he lost a ton of positions. Capitalizing the mistakes of his rivales, he climbed to sixth.
“It was a little chaotic throughout the day, but things came around. I started out making it through the heat race unscathed. I went into the main and got a really good start and kind of fumbled the first little straightaway and went from first to like sixth. [laughs] I didn’t quite have the intensity the first maybe 10 minutes, and the front group got away a little bit–I was riding in no-man’s land. Overall though, I’m really happy. We got through it, which is all I really wanted to do, and I’ve got something to build on now. I’m excited for next weekend.”
