Crawfordsville, IN (August 25, 2018) – Team GEICO Honda followed a 1-2 finish at last weekend’s Lucas Oil Pro Motocross round with another double podium at the season finale at Ironman MX. Despite massive storms all morning that left the track a muddy mess, RJ Hampshire (4-3 moto scores) and Chase Sexton (2-6 moto scores) powered to second and third overall for the day.
“We’ve definitely had the speed these last four or five rounds,” said Sexton. “Two GEICO Honda riders on the podium again, yeah that’s good for sure.”
Cameron McAdoo was also very fast in the mud, but perhaps too fast, as he got stuck and couldn’t finish either moto.
Hampshire’s day started with a tough practice, but he bounced back despite a bad gate pick in the first moto. He pulled the holeshot in moto two with a sneaky line all the way on the inside.
“I saw in the first 450 moto that Chad Reed had that gate, and sure enough it was open for me,” said Hampshire. “It was cool. I actually called it early this week in an Instagram post, I said I would get a holeshot. I had the confidence. We actually had a little issue in practice so we qualified 36th. Was pretty far outside but had a decent go at it, had a few small crashes but got fourth. Second moto I pulled that holeshot and was kind of just riding with AP (race leader Aaron Plessinger) for quite a while, found the ground, got up. I knew I needed to get Chase for the podium, and he ended up going down and giving it back to me.”
Sexton was strong in moto one en route to second, so he focused on pushing for the second-moto win and getting the overall victory. He took some risks both those led to a series of crashes that dropped him to sixth.
“It’s only three hours from my home town,” Sexton said of the Ironman track. “I’ve actually raced the GNCC [Grand National Cross Country] here twice. I wish it would have helped me out there today–falling down six times in the second moto is definitely not GNCC worthy! I saw Aaron up ahead of me and I thought “Well I got one shot to win this.” I felt really good and I thought I saw him getting closer, but then I hit the ground. It went downhill from there. I was kind of over being conservative this whole year. I’m glad I went for it!”
“I got six podiums this year, three in supercross and three outdoors,” added Sexton. “I’d say that’s a pretty good year for me, I learned a lot and I’m looking forward for to 2019.”
McAdoo was very, very fast at times in the mud race, but couldn’t avoid getting stuck. He was credited with 36th overall with 31-35 scores.
“Ironman was a crazy one,” said McAdoo. “Started the day driving to the track in the pouring rain and it was still pitch black out 30 minutes before the riders meeting. We knew it was gonna be an interesting season ender! The race didn’t go ideal for me due to such muddy conditions, I ended up losing my bike in both motos, but it was fun to get up front again in the second moto. I also wanna give a huge thank you to the whole GEICO Honda team for busting their butts all day in those conditions, especially pretty much having my bike down to the frame after moto 1 and having me back on the line for moto 2!”
In the final standings for the season, Hampshire ends the year fourth, just 15 points out of third. Sexton finished sixth, just eight points out of the top five. Jeremy Martin, who led the points early in the season before an injury, was still ranked 14th. McAdoo completed his first full pro season in 15th.
The 2018 regular season is now complete for GEICO Honda. Off-season plans and the full 2019 team lineup will be announced at a later date.
GEICO Honda Results
Ironman National
Crawfordsville, IN
2. RJ Hampshire
3. Chase Sexton
36. Cameron McAdoo
Final 2018 Pro MX Standings
4. RJ Hampshire
6. Chase Sexton
14. Jeremy Martin
15. Cameron McAdoo
