Image: Octopi Media.

Arlington 250SX Triple Crown winner Nate Thrasher is keeping his sights set on challenging for the eastern regional title despite battling through a knee injury sustained in Houston earlier this month.

It’s understood that the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing rider tore his ACL at the opening round of 250SX East, but has so far managed to race-on with second in Tampa and victory at round three.

“It’s definitely not good,” the 20-year-old explained. “We’re trying to do a job and the knee’s definitely an issue, but it’s not holding me back. We’ll just keep pushing, it’s the cards we’re dealt, so there’s nothing you can do with it.”

After going 2-2-3 for the overall using consistency on Saturday night, he elaborated further on the mid-week compromises that his untimely knee injury is causing. Still, the plan is to manage the injury and continue into the season as he sits 16 points back from red plate-holder Hunter Lawrence (Team Honda HRC) in the points.

“I would say there’s not much [training] during the week, really,” Thrasher continued. “We’re kinda pretty limited on what we can do, just trying to manage it. It’s been good… We’re just putting our laps in and doing things we can, the best we can, and coming into the race weekend the best recovered and that’s pretty much all we can do.

“It sucks it happened – it happened in Houston and it’s a bummer, but we’ll be good. We’re just going to keep fighting and there’s no excuses. Everybody’s dealing with something, so we’ll just keep pushing through it. I’m not really treating it like I’m hurt, just doing the same stuff I did in the first round.

“I felt really good at the first round and felt like I had really good speed, but after that crash there wasn’t much left in it – I was hurting pretty bad. But we have a really good trainer in Swanny [Gareth Swanepoel], so he just kinda got me back where we needed to be and we’re managing it…

“I’m not really treating anything differently, I’m trying to go out there and win races, just like I came into the season trying to do. I mean, it’s obviously there, but once you get some adrenaline pumping it’s a lot easier.”