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JEREMY MARTIN
250 SX / 5TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Over the years, Jeremy Martin has certainly earned the reputation as an outdoor specialist. He has two outdoor titles to his name so that reputation does not come as a surprise. Unfortunately, he has not been able to translate that same reputation, or those same results, to supercross. For some reason, he has always struggled with his consistency and sometimes even his speed inside the stadiums. But in what will likely be his last 250SX Supercross season, he was determined to nally go out and have a good one. Things did not start off so hot for him this year and many thought it was the same Supercross version of Jeremy Martin but after the rst three rounds, something clicked. He rattled off back to back second place nishes and then back to back rst place nishes at the next two rounds. He was willing himself back into the title ght and needed another win at the penultimate round in Foxboro but a rst turn crash all but ended those hopes despite an absolutely brilliant come from behind fourth place nish. He looked to end the season on a high note here in Las Vegas.
Martin looked quick and aggressive in the qualifying practice sessions. He had the second fastest lap time out of the 250SX East riders and the fourth fastest combined of both East and West divisions. He was clearly one of the top dogs and favorites to come out with the win and all that was left for him to do was prove it in the races.
Martin did not get the greatest of starts in his heat race as he was buried near tenth coming out of the rst turn. He got right to work by passing up to sixth by the end of lap one. He’d then pass Jacob Williamson and Sean Cantrell during the next two laps to take over fourth where he would run stagnant for a while. He slowly crept
up on the big three-way battle for the lead and would of cially throw his hat in the ring when he passed Michael Mosiman for third with two laps left. He had Jordon Smith right there in front of him the rest of the way but did not have time to do anything about it. He’d take the third and head on through to the main event.
Martin got a much better start in the main than he did in the heat race. In the main, he rocketed into second place right behind Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM’s Shane McElrath. He shadowed the KTM rider throughout the rst few laps but frantically began looking for ways around him a handful of minutes into the race because he saw Adam Cianciarulo closing the gap on both of them quickly. It was easy to tell he wanted to clear McElrath and take the lead, but he simply could not make it happen. This allowed for Cianciarulo to close up and actu- ally pass both of them on lap eight, about halfway through the race. This dropped Martin back to third where
he still hounded the backside of McElrath. Nothing he could do seemed to give him an edge and this hurt him again when Jordon Smith came storming through late in the race. Smith bumped Martin back to fourth and that is where Martin appeared he would end up nishing the race but in the nal turn, Joey Savatgy ew in and made contact with him. Both riders got tangled up, but it would be Savatgy who would win over fourth and Martin set- tling for fth. Martin ate so much roost from McElrath during that main event and I’m sure he was glad it’s over and they can nally gear up and focus on the outdoor season that lays ahead.
38 GRITMOTO • MAY 6, 2018