Jeremy Martin has had a strong supercross season in his first year with the Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha team. The former supercross main event winner has yet to find the podium this season, but he has been doing his best to make each round of the 250SX East Region Championship in Monster Energy AMA Supercross. Unfortunately for the #6, a collapsed lung in a crash at the Atlanta Supercross ended that streak, but he rebounded with a sixth-place finish at the penultimate round of the East Region Championship in Nashville, Tennessee.
Martin, who currently sits sixth in the 250SX East Region Championship, said afterwards he is focused on the upcoming AMA Pro Motocross Championship, where he is a two-time 250 Class Pro Motocross champion. The #6 is looking to finish out the supercross season with a solid finish at the finale in Utah before making a run at a possible third Pro Motocross title. Read what J-Mart said to our Aaron Hansel at the end of the day.
Racer X: How’d it go for you today?
Jeremy Martin: The race was good, I think we found something on the start that helped a little bit. I got out of the gate great in the heat race and great in the main event, and I just didn’t have it. The track was very technical. It got kind of dry and skatey. It was rough. When it got like that, I wasn’t comfortable being uncomfortable in those kinds of conditions. I’ve got some work to do.
Talk a little more about the track. We almost had three completely different tracks today. Muddy, then tacky, then dry.
Yeah it was brutal at the end, I think everyone would agree. [Justin] Barcia went down, there were a handful of guys who went down. You hate to see that. [Cooper] Webb went down too, I hope he’s okay. A slew of guys. This track was brutal man, supercross.
Is it hard to get a good setup with it changing so much?
Yeah, I think so. I’ve gone stiffer as the years have gone on, but when you ride these conditions, and there are ruts in the transitions and you’re pushing so much harder on race day, I’ve definitely gone more stiff, but you also need to have a setup that can handle the chop in the turns and stuff. You kind of need an outdoor feel with stiff supercross settings so you can have holdup in rhythms and not wander.
At this point in the season, how much of your focus is still on supercross? Of course, you want good results, but how much focus is now on motocross?
A big goal for me this year was just to make every round in supercross. I feel like I do have podium speed, but everything has to click, and it hasn’t clicked yet. The guys are good, and I have to be better. But I’d be lying if I said after that crash in Atlanta I wasn’t just ticking the boxes. I want to get gate drops and ride hard and get better, but I’m also not going to kill myself to try to get a podium. I’m thinking outdoors.
Speaking of that crash in Atlanta, how’s that lung?
It was better. I was definitely taking some Aleve today to get through it. I could feel it, but I’m not going to make excuses. I just didn’t have it.
Well, you did have a collapsed lung, right?
Yeah, just a partial one.
Yeah, no big deal, just a collapsed lung.
[Laughs]
How’s the outdoor prep coming along?
It’s been good. I felt really strong, especially before Atlanta, because I’ve been logging time outdoors since Detroit. I feel really, really good. I feel racey. I lost a little bit of fitness with my chest and stuff like that, I wasn’t really able to train for a couple weeks, but we’ll get that back. The boys go West Coast now, so I’ll get a couple weeks to train, and I’ll probably hop on supercross one day before Salt Lake and get through that round.
