On Track Off Road No.183

colt nichols & reaching sx
time to splutter. In spite of those injuries,
Nichols wasn’t about to use that as an
excuse as to why he was left out of a factory
ride as soon as he became of age to
turn Pro.
“I didn’t have an awesome amateur career,
by any means,” he said. “I won quite
a few championships and things like that,
but I was never the guy that was winning
everything. So, it took me a while to get
going and learn the ropes and figure it
out on my own.”
Nichols didn’t have a place in Supercross
as he approached the age and timing to
consider being professional but found a
place to race. He contested the Arenacross
series in 2014 through the Team
Green program and when that season
was done, he spent the summer racing
in the Costa Rican MX1 series. He got his
first Supercross opportunity the following
year, representing a 250 team based
in his home state – Crossland Racing
Honda. He then got a ride with the Cycle
Trader Yamaha team in 2016 and
turned heads. He grabbed his first podium,
made it through the campaign with
a top-five finish in the championship,
which ultimately helped land him a factory
ride and his current Monster Energy
Star Yamaha Racing team.
The top drawer ticket didn’t mean it was
all smooth sailing however. He had another
rough patch – a broken femur in
2017, a broken humorous in 2018, actually,
twice the same year. Nichols kept a
positive mindset.
“That was a tough few years, really,” he
said. “It was my first year being on the
team [Star Racing] and I had an unfortunate
injury, broke my femur before the