race recap
JEREMY MARTIN | GRIT-207 | 250SX
February 7, 2023 · Jeremy Martin
JEREMY MARTIN | GRIT-207 | 250SX
Looking onto the track prior to press day beginning, Jeremy Martin (and the ClubMX team) understood that a strong start and bold moves would be critical if a racer wanted to infiltrate the top-five. Though countless laps had been generated in the weeks prior, there wasn't much that could replicate the intensity that a 250cc main event could bring; which made focusing that much more critical, as qualification was underway. The jumps on this Houston course were rather "peaky" with little room for error in the rhythm lanes that spanned the length of the floor. He conducted numerous options of tripling, including looking rather stellar in the span of singles just before the finish-line; where he dashed to the timing and scoring sensor to ultimately arrive fifth before the night show began. His Yamaha was on-point and appeared to navigate through the circuit rather well as heat two began. The whoops (which were some of the longest we've seen thus far in the series) were a critical juncture for him to reside inside the top portion(s) of the field; gaining ground here, again and again, while staying atop the balls of his feet on his foot-pegs. Though he had to be relatively easy on the front-brake (with the track becoming slicker), he could push into the sand section as hard as possible with his mentality fixated on pushing the chassis into the "fluff" that outlined the outskirt of the raceway. Opportunities would arise where he could distance himself over Cullin Park who trailed; and he took advantage of them, while he subtly monitored his opponents whereabouts from the fifth minute onward. Continuing to maintain a prominent pace as he rallied through the final thirty-seconds of action, he would be categorized in fifth as all was said and done. He could then be found around the fifth-place standing for the earliest laps of the main event, where he tried to identify (and mimic) the pace of Hunter Lawrence on his Honda 250F. Sweeping through the sand prior to launching off the "SX" triple, he could look to the left and see Tom Vialle leading the field around. Though escaping the pressure from the latter half of the top-ten, he couldn't become complacent with a prominent mix of veterans and rookies closing in (rather fast) some four to five-seconds behind his rear wheel. He looked at the pit board time and time again, where his lap-times and distance between he and the leader were scribed; which motivated him to "dig-deep" in the final four laps of action. Weaving through a sea of yellow flags that were thrown in the sectors nearest the middle of the raceway, he seemed to have a top-four position seemingly finalized...until a crucial mistake of his own would cost him with only corners to go! Sliding back to fifth, Martin would be pleased, but eager to rebound in the coming rounds.