Jeremy Martin had a rough-and-tumble weekend in Indianapolis. For the third consecutive year, he has failed to qualify in at least one East Coast round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship. Two years ago, he was a rookie and although I am sure he and his team were disappointed, it happens. Last year was a bit more troubling as he didn’t qualify at the first two rounds and really didn’t seem to be riding that well. He turned that around, though, landing on the podium at the last two rounds, including a win at the Las Vegas finale. He would go on to win the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship last summer, a huge feat for any rider. Coming into this year’s supercross season, many wondered if the troubles he had faced the two previous seasons would resurface.
Surely he had matured over the summer and would be able to avoid the pitfalls of years past? After a win and multiple podiums in the past few weeks, it certainly seemed so—until this weekend.
Martin crashed on the first lap of his heat race and was in last position. This happens to everyone at some time in their career. Most times this results in a trip to the LCQ, but if the rider can put in solid lap times, there’s a chance to sneak into one of the last qualifying spots. This was looking to be the case for Martin as he was closing on the ninth quickly. He is capable of going much faster than most of the field, so it’s no surprise that he could catch up to ninth in a six-lap race. On the last lap he arrived behind the final transfer spot held by Australia’s Taylor Potter. Normally, this would be a routine pass as Martin is simply much better. However, on the last lap of a qualifier, fighting for the last spot, of course Potter is going to make things tough.
Martin tried to go around the outside of Potter in the right-handed ninety-degree turn before the triple at the far end of the stadium. Keep in mind that there was another ninety-degree turn to the right just after this triple, basically nullifying any chance of using the outside to make a pass. Martin pressed on, however, and tried to squeeze into a window that didn’t exist. Potter, seeing that Martin was trying to somehow ride around the outside of him, just pushed wide to eliminate any chance of being passed. This left Martin with nowhere to go and a need to brake hard. But he didn’t! He still tried to force his way around the outside and ended up plowing the Tuff Blocks and crashing.
Sitting there watching this, I was stunned. I couldn’t believe that a rider with the experience Martin has would try to make a pass in that spot. He had no chance of making that pass happen. Even if he had been able to pull alongside Potter, he would have been forced out in the following ninety-degree turn because he was still on the outside. It was a bad decision and certainly didn’t pay off.
Had he either squared up the turn and gone inside of Potter or even followed him through the section, he would have still had half a lap to make the pass. They were nearing the whoops—where passes are often made—and there was a tricky stair step section just after that where Martin had been passing other riders leading up to this last lap. There was still plenty of opportunity to make a pass in a section of track that was much more conducive. He rushed it, probably panicked from the first-lap crash, and chose to force a move that had no chance of success.
Now, after all of that, Martin would find himself in the LCQ. He got into the lead early and looked to be en route to an easy win. That was until Luke Vonlinger crashed badly on the triple jump, resulting in a red-flag situation and a restart. The restart would go much differently for Martin as he was mired in the pack on the opening lap. He made some quick moves and got into the top ten, ending the first lap in sixth position. At this point, I wasn’t concerned for Martin. He had plenty of time and was right behind the leaders. He could take his time and make calculated decisions, lowering his risk.
Just as I was thinking this, he did the unthinkable. In arguably the toughest whoop section of the year, he went for the kamikaze blitz through them. I literally thought, “Why is he taking chances?” as he was about halfway through the whoops. Just about then, he started swapping and things began to unravel. The last swap sent him hard to the right and into another Tuff Block rendezvous. He would go down again, ending his night and probably any chance at this championship as well. It was a crash, and crashes happen, but I, and others I talked to, didn’t feel that was a great place to unleash hell. The whoops were incredibly treacherous and almost every rider in both classes had already conceded to finding a jump rhythm through them. Blitzing them was simply too risky and the odds of something going wrong was simply too high.
In a situation where he didn’t need to take a chance, he did just that. He was easily capable of passing two more riders over the next three laps wherever he chose. Unfortunately for Martin, his second big mistake of the night would cost him dearly.
Writing this, I’m very aware of how easy it is to analyze and criticize from the sideline. He’s much faster than I ever was and I certainly couldn’t do a better job than he can. But, I have seen riders from many different generations and know their strengths and weaknesses. This crunch-time decision-making is an area where Martin can improve. Hindsight is always 20/20, and I am sure he knows where his mistakes arose as well. It really was surprising to see a rider who was so incredible last summer make what I would consider to be “rookie mistakes.” He will bounce back from this and move forward. His career won’t be defined by one weekend or mishap. However, he really should take the time to evaluate why these things happen. This is the third consecutive supercross season that a DNQ has completely derailed a championship opportunity. He’s too good to let a situation like that be his theme for a weekend.
Samuel Smiles once said, “We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.” This is exactly what Martin must do. Take the lesson he learned and apply it so he approaches future situations more wisely.
