Geico Honda Indianapolis Race Report

Courtesy of Geico Honda

March 24, 2018 (Indianapolis, Indiana) – The insertion of a 250SX East/West Showdown midway through the Monster Energy Supercross Championship was bound to create chaos, and the racing in Indianapolis lived up to that hype. GEICO Honda’s Jeremy Martin overcame it to score the victory over the best from both divisions. It’s Martin’s first victory of the season, a follow-up to back-to-back runner-up finishes at Daytona and St. Louis. On a crazy night, though, even his win went through the ringer. A post-race penalty resulted in Martin losing seven points from his total points haul, but he keeps his race victory.

Martin was penalized for failing to single each jump in a triple jump section where the red safety lights were being displayed. Instead, Martin rolled the first jump and doubled the next two. Series’ officials penalized him seven championship points, but his race victory stands.

Two weeks ago, when Martin scored his first podium of the season in Daytona, he said he felt like a win was coming. The Indy win over the combined talents of the East and West divisions marks Martin’s welcome return to the center of the podium.

“I got the holeshot and rode good for a little bit. Then I saw the boys behind me!” said Martin. “The track was pretty tricky. I’m not going to lie. I had a couple sketchy moments out there. I saw Luke [Renzland] was in second. I kind of looked around. I kind of just was trying to maintain it. I had a couple close calls out there. But we were able to lead from start to finish and have a good race.”

Martin was unsure immediately after the race of what the final decision on his penalty would be. Martin and the GEICO Honda team didn’t deny that Martin single-doubled through the triple.

“From my perspective I came around the turn and I didn’t see the medic flag waving,” Martin said. “I saw the lights on the triple. I’m like, ‘I think those are red.’ So I rolled the face of it, and then I looked and saw that the area was clear and there was no medic flags after that, and then I doubled it. It was an honest mistake. There’s not much to say other than that. We’ll see what the outcome is.”

With the seven-point penalty included, Martin is now 19 points down on the leader in the 250SX East standings.

250SX West competitor Chase Sexton had a forgettable night, with multiple crashes leaving him unable to finish the race. He was not injured, however.

“Indy was a bit of a roller coaster,” said Sexton. “Felt good all of practice and was ready to bring it to the night show. I got a bad start in the heat but worked my way through the pack to fifth. In the main I got another bad start and was close to last. As I was making my way through, I kept making mistakes and actually went down twice. I ended up messing up my front brake. We tried to fix it mid race but it kept locking up so I wasn’t able to finish. Really bummed on how the night went since I felt so good during the day but that’s racing. Ready to make Seattle a good one!”

GEICO Honda’s other 250SX West rider, Christian Craig, continued competing in the 450SX division as an injury replacement with team Honda HRC. He finished 16th in Indianapolis, his first finish outside the top ten since jumping up to the 450.

The series gets a weekend off before the West Region resumes in Seattle on April 7th.

GEICO Honda Results

Indianapolis, Indiana

250SX East/West Showdown

1. Jeremy Martin

21. Chase Sexton

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