Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner earned his first win since 2020 in only his second race back from injury inside Gillette Stadium at the penultimate Eastern Regional 250SX championship round.

The day started with Forkner showing his comfort on the track, putting his Kawasaki KX250 into the top qualifying position. With confidence going into the heat race, Forkner got a decent jump at the start but got caught up in a first-turn pileup. He got going outside the top 10 and worked his way up to fight for the lead. As he was going for the lead, Forkner went down, still able to remount and come across the line in fifth.

Forkner was a bit roughed up after his heat-race crash, but his hunger for a win pushed him on. He started the race outside the top five, quickly making his way toward the front. Forkner settled into third by lap 8 and continued to push toward the front-runners. With each lap, he closed the gap to the leader, and after second place went down, Forkner found himself fighting for the win. He pulled up right on the leader with just over a minute remaining and made it by, holding on until the checkered flag.

“This win means a lot. At some point, you start to question whether you’re capable of winning again after missing so much from injury. It’s easy to feel good and ride well at the practice track, but it’s a lot different when you show up and are feeling all the nerves of a race. I was fired up after last weekend because I thought I was capable of so much more than what I delivered in the main event. I’m thankful it all came together today and we’ll be ready to close out the season in a few weeks in Salt Lake City,” Forkner said.