Cooper went into Arlington 3 looking to end the week on a high note. He got off to a great start, maintaining his perfect qualifying record by leading every practice session before the evening program. The New Yorker backed that up with two great starts, first in his heat race which he won in dominant fashion, and then in the race the counted, where he also led start-to-finish to earn his second win of the season. As the series heads into a three-week break, Cooper reclaims the red plate with a two-point lead in the 250SX West Championship.
Both of the team’s rookies continued to make improvements at Round 5 of the championship. Thrasher had a big crash in the first qualifying session and hit his jaw pretty hard. He sat out of the second session to seek medical evaluation at a local hospital and make sure he was okay to race. With the decision made that he was ready to return, Thrasher came back to finish fourth in his heat race. In the Main Event, he got a decent start inside the top 10 and worked his up to seventh, ultimately finishing ninth on the demanding track to end the week in Arlington with three top-10 finishes.
After a few tough rounds for Frye, the 20-year-old rebounded to have his best performance thus far in his debut season. He started off with his best qualifying result in 10th and then grabbed the holeshot in his heat race, led the first lap, and went on to score his best heat race result in second. Although he did not repeat that flying start in the Main Event, sitting just outside the top 10, Frye kept pushing and battled throughout the race to improve to a 10th-place result.
The Monster Energy Star Yamaha Racing 250SX West team gets a three-week break before heading to Georgia on April 10 to kick off another Monster Energy AMA Supercross tripleheader at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
