Pat Smage Sweeps the Weekend in Rhode Island. Earns 14th AMA Trials Championship. |
Exeter, Rhode Island – FactoryONE Sherco trials rider Pat Smage swept the final weekend of the AMA Trials Nationals in commanding fashion. He would take only six points on day one beating second place Josh Roper by 50 points who had 56 and FactoryONE Sherco teammate Willem Myers was a further 24 points adrift for p3. On day two, which is typically more difficult, Smage would finish with 13 markers. In second place it was FactoryONE Scorpa rider Alexander Myers with a total of 65 and Roper in third with 66. |
Smage and Crew with the 2023 #1 Plate Photo: Stephanie Vetterly |
For context, a national trials event consists of three loops with 12 individual sections in each loop. The riders have 90 seconds to complete each section and seven total hours to complete the three loops in the trial. Riders score points in a number of ways. Riders can score a single point for a “dab” where they put a foot down for example, or two points for two feet down or three points for sliding a foot. The rider is awarded five points for a “failure” which has several definitions but the most common is coming off of the riders bike completely or not passing through a gate. On Saturday’s round seven of the championship, Smage would put on a master class with loop scores of 1-1-4 for his total score of six with 32 total cleans. This in comparison to second place Josh Roper with loop scores of 18-22-16 with 21 cleans for a total of 56. Third place Will Myers went 26-26-23 with 14 cleans. |
Smage in flight with his minder looking on Photo: Stephanie Vetterly |
For Sunday’s final round, Smage would need to finish 7th or better to claim the 2023 championship and his 14th overall. He would do much better than that putting together another beautiful ride with scores of 4-3-6 with 30 cleans for 13. Alexander Myers on sister brand Scorpa, came in with scores of 20-22-23 with 14 cleans for his best finish of the season in p2 with 65 points. Rounding out the podium was Roper with 33-20-13 and 13 cleans for 66 points. The result would earn Pat his 14th AMA #1 plate and his 6th consecutive tying a mark set by Ryan Young. Pat has won all 14 championships on a Sherco 300 ST. “What a season with the new fuel injected and lighter ST 300. It certainly took some getting used to but we managed to put it together for another title, said Smage. “Josh, Alex, Will and the rest of the pro field were riding so well this year. They certainly made it difficult. Josh and I battled back and forth all year. We had weekends where we tied on points and it came down to cleans. I had a bunch of pressure coming into this weekend as we were so close in the championship. I am glad I was able to put in some great rides on the Sherco to be able to sweep the weekend. I want to thank my wife Hannah for all of her support this year as well as Ron and the whole FactoryONE team,” concluded Smage. |