Racer X: Jeremy Martin, moto number one probably couldn’t have gone much better for you. Talk us through that portion of it before we get to the second part of the question.
Jeremy Martin: It was great. I lined up next to you [Alex Martin], right? I remember I got the jump on him and I look over, I’m like, “Yeah, what’s up! I got it.” I got the holeshot. I was riding good. The guys were right there. Zach [Osborne] was there. We hit lappers and he’d catch me. I’d get away through the lappers. I saw Alex right there. We were just yo-yoing the whole time. I think I got a little lucky with the lappers and Zach, I was able to kind of keep him at bay. It was a good first moto.
The second moto started off almost exactly the same.
J-Mart: Yeah, it was great. I got the holeshot again. I’m really comfortable with the GEICO Honda out of the gate. It’s been really good this year. Just unfortunately lost the front end in the second turn.
Had to do a lot of work from there. How do you think your day went compared to how it started in moto two? Did you come to where you were at least somewhat satisfied?
J-Mart: Yeah. I’m obviously bummed. I would have liked to have gotten up there further, or not even gone down at all. I made one mistake today and that was in the second turn in moto two. Otherwise it was a good day. I felt really good in the second moto. I felt like I was riding better in moto two. I would have liked to have been up there with the boys battling, but I was in the back, ripping tear-offs and eating roost.
Alex Martin, your day was kind of similar to your brother’s. Had real highs and then a couple lows. Then you did some damage control. Tell us a bit about that.
Alex Martin: RedBud’s one of my favorite venues, so really looking forward to coming here. Obviously, that first moto we were all 1-2-3 in the points. It was solid. Not much passing going on. Typically, you’d expect RedBud to kind of be more of a gap between the top guys. For the most part we were just 1-2-3 right there the whole moto. So, that was a little bit of a bummer because you’re kind of looking for that advantage. We were all so evenly paced and matched. But then second moto I was able to get out front and get the holeshot right after he tipped over. It was a picture-perfect race and I just kind of threw it away. So, I’m pretty disappointed with that because it could have been 3-1 for the overall. So, a little bit bummed with how that went, but these guys are tough. We’ve been consistent for the most part. It’s been fun.
Zach Osborne, I guess a similar question as both of your motos started off similar. You didn’t quite get up to the front, but you did it through attrition.
Zach Osborne: The first one was good. I started second and I was right behind Jeremy. All three of us were kind of freight-training there for a little while. He would get away. I’d come back. He’d get away. I’d come back. And Alex was right there the whole time. So it was a really good race. It sucks to lose, but if you’re going to lose to be on the pace and be right there and only lose a few points, it’s not a huge deal. It was a good moto. To run with the first, second, and third in the points and have a duel like that and to do it here at RedBud was pretty cool, I thought.
Obviously, the two [Alex and Jeremy] on the outside have a lot of National experience from when you were children. Is there any place that gets more insane during the race than this place with the fans?
A-Mart: No. I’d say RedBud’s definitely probably one of the best ones. Other than like when I raced Motocross des Nations overseas. Those guys got chainsaws. They’ve got blowup dolls on the side and they’re jamming them over the fence. It’s a different world over there and they’re next level, but RedBud is probably one of the closest ones to that.
Zach, you’ve spent a lot of time in Europe. Anything similar to this over there?
Osborne: Yeah. Like you said, they’re insane. They don’t care. One of the GPs in France they have this … it’s like a street bike engine on a crate and you just pay like 10 Euros and they give you a can of gas and you just hold it wide open until you run out of gas or whatever. That goes on until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. RedBud is next level here in America, but there’s definitely some crazy Euros out there.
Can you guys talk about the track changes a little bit? I know they brought in a ton of sand and they changed the [LaRocco’s] leap a little bit. You guys were hitting it pretty consistently in practice and then towards the end of the motos it didn’t look like you guys were going for it.
Osborne: Actually, I never jumped it one time all day.
A-Mart: Me and Zach know better.
Osborne: I feel like that left, left, right kind of closed the line down there a little bit. I made some passes in the second moto, but I just felt like it was a little bit one-lined instead of the normal left straight to the leap. With the chicane there it was just a little bit one-lined.
Alex, I saw Tyla Rattray on the side of the track during practice throwing a little fit trying to get you to jump the leap there.
A-Mart: Yeah, I was really, really tempted there for a couple laps. Forkner jumped it in front of me in practice. For whatever reason, I was more confident because I’ve done it the last three years with the left-hand sweeper before it, because you could keep a little bit more momentum, but with the chicane for whatever reason he didn’t seem like he had the momentum to jump it. Obviously, the guys were jumping it, but I was just like, I don’t want to end my year on this stupid jump right now so I’m just going to chill out. I still qualified second. Zach qualified first, and we didn’t jump the leap. So, I don’t think it was a big, big difference. I was basically ignoring Tyla.
Osborne: I think jumping it takes a little bit of pressure off of you for the rest of the lap. You have to be a little bit more perfect around the track to not jump it and still be fast. But I think you can make it up.
Jeremy, how are you able to put it out of your mind like in the first moto when Zach was right behind you basically the entire moto? It seems like that would just be a lot of pressure. Obviously you handled it. How do you handle that?
J-Mart: We’ve all been kind of doing this long enough now to where we’ve all been in a heated battle with someone for a lot of years now. I’ve been in situations where I’ve had a lot more pressure. I could hear Zach and I knew that he’s fast and he was coming up on me, but I knew that it was probably due to maybe one or two better lines, or he was a little bit more aggressive here or there. A couple times he came in on the inside of me and I could hear him. I was able to pick up a couple better lines. But the lappers played such a big part in the first moto. The blue flags were waving and those guys just weren’t getting out of the way. So, I got messed up and I guarantee these guys got messed up by lappers. It would be kind of cool if … or it would be a little better if they were a little more friendly freight-train like that, three guys in the championship. It would be really cool if we could keep the battle without those guys in there.
We just hit the midseason point. Give yourself a midseason grade here.
A-Mart: I’m kind of in a lot different position the way I feel mentally than last year. I came in kind of nursing some injuries from supercross and on a new bike, so my goal was just to be healthy for the first three and be in a good position. We ended up being I think second after the third round. So, for me I’ve just kind of been gaining confidence as we go and get a little bit better and more comfortable, figuring the KTM out. I’m pretty happy to be in second, but not so happy because Zach’s got such a big lead. But all I can really focus on is myself and making myself better. So, we’re going back to Florida and we’re working hard during the week. Just chipping away and try and come out swinging. In the overall, we’re second in points, so it’s not too bad.
Osborne: Coming into this season after the way the supercross championship went and everything, I didn’t really know what to expect. I was kind of emotionally and physically drained after the Vegas deal. To go 1-1 at Hangtown kind of picked things up on the right foot. I’m just trying to carry it along as much as I could. I would have to give myself a pretty good grade at this point. I think my average finish was three-ish. That’s what it takes. Just have to keep putting myself in a good position and see where we are at the end.
Alex, there’s been several different moto winners and there’s been a lot of points situations where the top three has been so close where it’s hard to determine really who’s going to be on the podium. At this point now, it seems like you guys have been the strongest or the most consistent. Do you kind of see that the two guys to your right are your competitors for the outdoor title?
A-Mart: Yeah. Obviously at this point we’re 1-2-3 in the championship. There’s going to be guys where we go to their home race and they’re going to be a little bit more spunky and ready to kick some butt. We’re a little bit more seasoned and veterans. That’s why we’re 1-2-3 because we’ve been around and we have that experience and pretty much have every track somewhat dialed. Even then, that doesn’t guarantee I’m going to win. All these tracks we’ve been to them before. We’ve all had good results there. So, it’s not like I can really count on one race to try and dominate and get points up on these guys. We’re all so solid. I really think that honestly the biggest thing is just getting the start and getting out front and trying to conserve your energy. It doesn’t really do you any good if you win by 30 seconds in one moto and then you’re kind of spent for the second moto. So, there’s a lot of strategy that’s been I think involved this year.
Obviously, we’re heading to somewhere pretty different next week. We’ll be heading up to Southwick. It was off the schedule for a little bit. What’s the three of your thoughts heading into the next round?
A-Mart: For me it’s just another race. I think we all kind of like the sand. Zach’s spent a lot of time in the sand and so has my brother. That’s a track where I feel like the start is pretty huge as well because it’s not a very wide track. It’s tough to pass. We’re all in Florida at the moment. We’ll be practicing in the sand this week and I’m sure working on our starts. I’m definitely looking forward to it.
Osborne: I feel like this track today is almost as sandy as what we’re going to next weekend. But I did hear that they brought in some sand, so that will be really good. I like the sand. I look forward to going to Southwick. Last year was good. Different sort of playing field this year. I look forward to it.
J-Mart: I’m excited. More racing, more chances to get some wins and some overalls. I like the sand. The boys like the sand. Should be some good racing.
