"It's Unreal!" Jordon Smith Makes History with Triumph's First Supercross Win

North Carolina’s veteran 29-year-old Jordon Smith, 30 this Wednesday, made history at the Glendale Supercross 250SX West Triple Crown on Saturday, granting Triumph and its TF 250-X their career-first Supercross win in just the team and brands' second year.

2025 marks the first year racing the 250SX West Regional Championship with track conditions different from 250SX East, where it all started last year for Triumph in the world of AMA Supercross racing.

Glendale marked Smith’s fifth career 250SX victory, and this win will go down in the record books for a special reason. "Very special, very cool to get Triumph's first win. They've been telling me there's a brick in the UK that has bricks with a lot of their accomplishments on them, and there's one for the first win. Pretty cool to put my name on that and very special." Smith said excitedly in a room full of media at the post-race press conference.

<em>"They've been telling me there's a brick in the UK that has bricks with a lot of their accomplishments on them, and there's one for the first win. Pretty cool to put my name on that and very special." </em>Photo Courtesy of Triumph
"They've been telling me there's a brick in the UK that has bricks with a lot of their accomplishments on them, and there's one for the first win. Pretty cool to put my name on that and very special." Photo Courtesy of Triumph

This season is the team's first attempt racing these West Coast tracks, and it has been challenging for Smith and the team to get the bike dialed in for these first four rounds.
"I think just in general we've been getting better with the bike setup all year, just learning at each race we go to. You can feel prepared at the practice track, but once you get on the race tracks, they're always different. This track, even though it was really hard-packed, had more ruts than what we have seen at Anaheim and stuff in the turns. My bike was handling really good. We've made a lot of good changes for the whoops this year or so far through four rounds, feeling more like myself in those. From where we started in October to where we're at now, just a huge shout-out to everyone on the team—it's unreal."

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With 2-3-1 moto scores on the night to grant him the victory, staying consistent and great starts are the name of the game for these Triple Crown format races. Winning often never comes easy, especially with struggles in the timed qualifying sessions earlier in the day. "It was good. Had pretty good practice times. I was really struggling in the sand section in practice, and that's nothing new. I've been doing it a long time and can't figure out the sand section. Figured it out for the night show. The rhythm section after the whoops was a struggle in practice as well, and we figured out a different rhythm that I was able to nail every time in the mains. It worked out good. My confidence on the starts has definitely gone up this year. My bike's coming off the gate really good, so I was feeling good with that coming into a Triple Crown. We really just executed everything we talked about all day with the starts, the rhythm, and getting through the sand every lap without falling. Just a good execution and working together as a team all day."

"<em>We really just executed everything we talked about all day with the starts, the rhythm, and getting through the sand every lap without falling. Just a good execution and working together as a team all day."</em>Photo Courtesy of Triumph
"We really just executed everything we talked about all day with the starts, the rhythm, and getting through the sand every lap without falling. Just a good execution and working together as a team all day."Photo Courtesy of Triumph

During that final race, knowing that he had the win secured wasn’t prevalent till the later stages. "I wasn't 100% sure. I was kind of getting the vibe from my mechanic with the pit board the last few laps. He didn't really say anything, but just from his facial expression coming by, I thought that I may have been in position for it. I was trying to look at the board. I knew that I just needed to beat Haiden (Deegan) straight up, and if Cole (Davies) finished fourth and I won, then I would get it. I was trying to check the board but never really got a good look at it, so I wasn’t really sure until I came around the last lap and he had it on the pit board. Pretty cool."

Smith is coming off a two-year stint at the highly respected Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team. Leaving that camp for a newly developed team and machine was a big deal in the off-season, entering 2025 with a few unknowns. The Triumph team has a great vibe and knowledgeable individuals onboard, "There are a lot of similarities. On both teams, we all expect to win. We put the work in to win. Everyone at Triumph Racing has won with other teams in the past, so it's a very good crew of people over there. From day one, whenever we got there, we just kind of started with a clean slate—myself, the team, the bike, everything. We've worked really hard on each aspect of racing—the starts, the bike, my riding technique. Training with Brownie (Mike Brown) has been awesome. There's a lot of similarities—we all show up to win every weekend—but the teamwork that everyone puts in at Triumph is kind of unlike any other team that I've been on. Everyone works really well together, doing their job and trusting each other."

"<em>From day one, whenever we got there, we just kind of started with a clean slate—myself, the team, the bike, everything. We've worked really hard on each aspect of racing—the starts, the bike, my riding technique."</em>Photo Courtesy of Triumph
"From day one, whenever we got there, we just kind of started with a clean slate—myself, the team, the bike, everything. We've worked really hard on each aspect of racing—the starts, the bike, my riding technique."Photo Courtesy of Triumph

With the series switching to the 250SX East Regional Championship this coming weekend in Tampa, the 250SX West riders get a two-week break before Arlington for the next round of the series, giving these riders a bit of a break. "It's going to be good. We've been flying back and forth to Georgia every week. Doing those cross-country flights is pretty tough, especially with a two-year-old—she gets a little off schedule. It’s going to be a good two weeks. We have more stuff to try on the bike that we think should be pretty good. Hopefully, we make some headway there and come into the next round in Arlington even stronger."

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The rookie Cole Davies and Smith were teammates on the Yamaha Star Racing team last year, and Smith poked some fun at the young New Zealander. "After Cole beat me in the first two motos, I was thinking, ‘Dude, last summer, he was riding in the car with me every day to Swan’s (Gareth Swanepoel) house to go do bike rides. I should have left him in his cabin a couple of times!’"

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Related: Glendale Supercross Triple Crown Results | Race Recap: Glendale Supercross Triple Crown