On Track Off Road No.183

Feature
Supercross competition is fierce.
Expectations are high and the road
to get there is fraught. Colt Nichols
knows all about that. The 24-year old
from Oklahoma had to fight his way back
from multiple injuries and found his way
through an alternative route to one of the
sport’s top 250 teams: Star Racing. He
didn’t turn his back on his Supercross
dream and now sits in the points lead
four rounds into the 2019 250SX West
season. Here’s his story.
Nichols really isn’t your modern-day
a-typical moto kid. He wasn’t home
schooled, he wasn’t fast tracked into a
factory ride from the factory-supported
amateur feeder teams in the U.S. He
did however, have a great support group
around him in Oklahoma and an unwavering
faith that he was going to be a
professional Supercross racer.
His dad competed at local level. “I started
messing around when I was three
years old,” he said. “That’s when my dad
got me a bike. It was all through him. He
used to race; I saw him doing it when I
was just a little guy and I thought it was
the coolest thing ever, and I wanted to
be just like my dad. So he got me a bike,
and the rest is history after that.”
Anyone who has paid the slightest attention
to the amateur motocross scene
in the U.S. knows that like a lot of youth
sports, the intensity level of competition
continues to grow.
“If I could say anything to young kids to try to help then
it would probably be about that sacrifice it takes to be
at the top level, and try to show up every single time as
focused as possible to do the job at hand...”
“Ever since I’ve been little this is everything
I ever wanted to do,” he says. “I
was regular kid. I played sports in high
school, like most. I went all the way
through to my senior year, then I did
the online school thing. I loved playing
sports and being involved with school
activities and doing all that stuff, but I
always knew I was meant to race dirt
bikes.”
That love for it started young. Like most
racers, it was a family thing.
“Amateur level is pretty competitive, especially
when you start to get up closer
to big bikes,” Nichols said. “Everybody is
going really fast. All the kids are already
training at that point. I was in the period
where it was starting to become a reality
for kids to get signed at a young age
and to actually start making money. That
was, I think, the initial push for me to try
to get a little better quicker.”
He landed a Team Green ride during his
Mini days and his dad decided to seek
out an expert, fellow Oklahoma racer
– Robbie Reynard. That training was
definitely important during his formative
years but Nichols had some roadblocks
ahead of him. Injuries slowed his forward
progress and leading up to the transition
from amateur to pro is not a good