Photo: Photo by: Hoppenworld

At last weekend’s 2017 High Point National, GEICO / Honda’s Jeremy Martin finally put together two solid motos and scored his first overall win of the season and his first-ever overall on the Honda. The former two-time AMA 250 National Motocross Champion had yet another rough Supercross season, but was still on the top of everyone’s preseason favorites list to win the third title of his career. Unfortunately, the #6 started the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship off with a DNF in the opening moto and is now fighting an uphill battle to get back into the thick of it.

With his 2-1 performance at High Point, Jeremy moved into second in the Championship, but the red plate holder, Rockstar / Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne, matched him on the day with a 1-2 score for second overall. Sitting in second now, Jeremy trails Zach in the points by 18, but with 14 motos left on the schedule, the #6 has plenty of time to close that gap. The 250MX class is stacked in 2017, but we have a feeling Zach and Jeremy might start distancing themselves from the field and making it a two-horse race. If Jeremy does not DNF the opening moto, he and Zach would be deadlocked at the top and the rest of the field nearly 20 points behind.

After the High Point National was in the books, Jeremy answered some questions about his day in the press tent.

Jeremy is starting to gel well with the factory Honda. Photo by: Hoppenworld

Jeremy, you got your first overall of the season, and your overall with GEICO Honda. It’s got to feel awesome.

It’s been one heck of a rough season for me—Supercross to the beginning of outdoors. I DNF’ed right away the first moto. It’s nice [to win]. I make sure I enjoyed it. These are hard to come by, especially with how good these guys are. Hopefully the team and I enjoy it tonight.

 

Did you say you were pumped up that first moto? Did not go the way you wanted?

For sure, I got off to a great start. I was pumped up like right away, but no excuses. I did my best to manage it. I could see Zach coming, and I’m like, “dang it, dang it!” Then he was able to get around me. It is what it is. We made some changes for moto two and felt better. I was able to kind of keep him at bay even though we got a bad start.

 

In the second moto you once again had to pass Big Al [Alex Martin] for the lead. Can you take us through that battle there?

It was great. I could see Alex. We’re going to be on the same flight home tomorrow, we’re going to have dinner tomorrow night and I’m like, “it’s time. It’s time to make a move. This one’s for the boys.” I got bragging rights this week. I’ll text TK [Tyler Keefe, TLD Team Manager] and I’ll be talking some shit this week.

 

The downhill double over here on the backside looked like an area where you guys were making up some time. How hard was it to hit that thing? Did you know that it was a jump? They try not to make downhill doubles?

Yeah, that thing’s massive. I saw it and I saw my brother hit it and I’m like, “Dammit, now I got to hit it.” It’s big, but I remember back in ’15 I think it was a little bit harder than it was this year. They really had the lip peaked out pretty good. I felt more safe hitting it.

It is an uphill battle for Jeremy from here on, but we aren’t counting the #6 out for a second. Photo by: Cycle Dump

I think you said in the past you’ve dealt with arm pump early in motos. Have you been able to pinpoint what may be causing it? How have you addressed it?

For me, it’s more about comfort. When you’re gelling. I like High Point, but I’ve always kind of struggled a little bit here. It’s a real hard base underneath—I think everyone can agree with that. My bike was working really well, but I could feel just enough of an the edge over a moto. We made a couple changes, just to smoothen out the edge a little bit and it helped significantly.

 

What did you think of the new layout and your thoughts on the track in general?

I like the old High Point. I like this High Point. I knew with it being as muddy as it was this morning, I knew it wasn’t going to be fun to practice, but come time for the motos I think everyone would agree that the track was pretty solid. There were a lot of lines. I don’t think there was any negative changes.

 

I think by straightening the track out, it allowed for some more passing. How did you feel the passing was today? Did it feel easier than the normal High Point?

Yeah, I think so. In the past, there were a lot of off-cambers and it would open up and then it would get really tight. You’d start to get a drive and then you’d get shut down. I think there’s a little bit more room to move around. I think it was a little easier. Just the track was so gnarly. Look at the downhill over there, and you’ll see there’s eight lines.

Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.