The Western Regional 250SX Class Main Event was one that will be re-watched, re-told and likely fall into the legend of the sport. Less than three laps into the race,
Cameron McAdoo, who was battling in fifth, crashed over the handlebars and was slammed brutally by his own bike into the steep face of a bridge jump. Worse still, the bike caught McAdoo's foot and whipped him violently in a full, body-extended front flip to deposit him with another hard slam onto the top of the flat jump obstacle.
McAdoo lay still for a frightening moment but soon was attended to by the trackside Alpinestars medical crew. With an injured rider down on the top of the jump the race was red flagged. With fewer than three laps completed, though the Atlanta track's lap times were nearly twice as long as on a standard track, the rule book called for a full re-start.
As the racers loaded back into the gate, miraculously Cameron McAdoo was among them, pleading to officials to allow him to re-start. He'd been evaluated and cleared to ride, and with a second evaluation completed on the spot, the rider was allowed to remount his bike. McAdoo was obviously sore but with no signs of concussion or broken bones. McAdoo, four points down in the title chase with three rounds remaining in that series, was back in the hunt.
When the gate dropped, last weekend's first time winner,
Nate Thrasher grabbed his second holeshot, just as he'd done before the re-start, and Justin Cooper slid quickly into the lead, just as he'd done before the re-start.
Amazingly McAdoo was right up front again. The evaluations seemed to have been spot on ‰ÛÒ the Kawasaki rider had the speed and clearly the desire and started to push hard from fifth place. Two and half minutes into the15-minute plus one lap Main Event he made his first pass on
Garrett Marchbanks, but the Yamaha rider battled back around. Less that a lap later McAdoo made his second pass stick with an inside line in the sand and set his sights on second place rider, Thrasher.
