It was only a matter of time before somebody won two races in 250SX East Region, and that person was Jeremy Martin, who straight up crushed the field in St. Louis. He still faces a big points gap, but he’s got bragging rights now—he’s won twice as many races as anyone else on the East Coast! Later in the pits Martin talked to us about his night, and being the first rider of the season to double up.
Racer X: Wow, good race!
Jeremy Martin: Yeah! Got a holeshot, so that was nice, I think it was the first one this year. I got out front, rode my own race and nobody else was able to dictate it. It was a nice rebound, the last few weekends have been pretty rough.
You had that crash in the heat on the start. Do things like that affect you?
To be honest I felt like garbage at the beginning of the day. I was struggling, cased a jump and cut my chin a little bit. Then I was struggling with bike setup, but things came around in the second practice. I was like, ‘Okay we’re good, we have a good gate pick.’ Then I went down in the heat race in the first turn and I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. This is a string of them now!’ But in the main I lined up a little farther outside. I was like, ‘We work way too hard for this stuff to be happening.’ I got a little upset about it, and was able to get out of the gate well and ride my own race.
Once Aaron Plessinger got into second you already had a big gap and we thought he might cut into it a little bit, on account of you just managing the lead. That didn’t happen. Were you pushing still, or did you have more in the tank?
I had more in the tank. I saw him and I made sure once he got into second the gap didn’t get any smaller to give him hope. If he would have started inching on me he could have been deadly at the end of the race. Right now Aaron’s riding really well, he’s good. He’s got that tall lanky style and he lets it hang loose. It’s funny to watch. We’ll watch footage between practice sessions, and we’ll watch me and we’ll watch him and it’s two totally different styles.
How was the track? It seemed ruttier in practice.
Yeah it was definitely a little more rutty in practice, which is normal. Come time for the heats, they put a lot of loose dirt on top so it was really slippery, but in the main we had that groove in a few spots and we made a suspension adjustment for more traction and it was awesome.
How good does it feel to come back and win after crashing out last week?
It feels good! This is where we should have been all along, every weekend. It’s just been a bummer and some bad luck. We’ve had five different winners this year so to be able to get my second one and be the first one to do it is good.
The championship doesn’t look so good right now. Does that shift focus to getting ready for motocross testing?
Yes, I think so. I won two outdoor championships, you know, so that’s what I go for now. But right now I’m just focused on trying to win races and we’ll see what happens at the end of the year. But the championship is pretty far gone, so we’ll just go out there, ride solid, and do what I did tonight.
