VOL. 54 ISSUE 32 AUGUST 15, 2017 P65
Jeremy Martin
was near flawless
in the wet stuff,
winning the
250MX class for
the second time
this year.
250MX
The Unadilla mud was a needed opportu-
nity for Jeremy Martin to pick up needed
ground on Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's
Zach Osborne in the championship chase,
as Osborne led Martin by 74 points coming
into the event. That's a massive lead, and
picking up even 10 points per moto for the
rest of the year wouldn't even be enough to
give Jeremy the title. But he did his part.
In the first moto, Martin started just out-
side the top five, and once up to third was
gifted second when leader Adam Ciancia-
rulo went down. "I felt probably the most
comfortable I've felt since the beginning of
the season," Martin said. "So it was nice to
get that monkey off my back and get back
up there with the boys and battle."
In the second moto, with the rain pour-
ing down, Martin grabbed the holeshot
and never looked back, his only real scare
coming as he approached the finish line
when a lapper fell in front of him and nearly
ended his race 40 feet before the check-
ered flag.
"I don't know how I saved it," Martin
said. "I almost went down there because a
lapper went down in front of me. I was like,
'Oh my God. How did I just save this?!'"
The moto win gave him the overall, but
in the end, the mud didn't help Martin
enough, as Osborne's bad days have been
pretty good all year. At Unadilla, Osborne
came through like a freight train—like
usual—late in the first moto to grab third af-
ter starting outside the top 10. Then, in the
second moto, Osborne came from even
farther back to snatch fifth, despite being
unable to see much of the time moving
through the field.
In the end, he still grabbed third overall,
and only lost 11 points to Martin on the day,
leaving him with 63 still in-hand as the se-
ries winds down to the final two races.
