For the third consecutive round of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross, the 250 Class has a different overall winner. This time it was Jeremy Martin, the two-time champion, taking his first victory of the season at High Point Raceway.
But Martin was unable to cut into Zach Osborne’s points lead, as the two split moto wins and ended up tied on the day for points.
Read on for a moto-by-moto breakdown of Saturday’s action.
Moto 1
After sweeping both motos at the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross season opener, Zach Osborne was kept winless at the next two rounds. But in Moto 1 at High Point, the current points leader returned to form with a victory.
Jeremy Martin rounded the first turn with the lead but had Aaron Plessinger and Zach Osborne close behind. Meanhwhile a big pileup claimed Alex Martin and Colt Nichols among its victims. Rookies Chase Sexton, who is making his debut this week, and Michael Mosiman were also held up by the incident.
After the opening lap, J-Mart, Plessinger and Osborne were the top three. A great battle ensued behind them featuring RJ Hampshire, Joey Savatgy, Sean Cantrell, Adam Cianciarulo, Austin Forkner and Dylan Ferrandis. After a lot of shuffling, Cianciarulo and Cantrell ended up fourth and fifth, respectively, at the five-minute mark of the race.
About nine minutes into the race, Osborne was all over the back of Plessinger, who was racing with a very painful groin injury after his practice crash. Osborne had trouble making a pass stick for awhile but eventually made the pass with about 19:30 left on the clock. But their ongoing battle had helped enable Jeremy Martin to open up a slight gap (about three seconds) on them.
Around the midway point, Osborne had basically cut that deficit in half. A few minutes later (on Lap 10), Osborne made a move while going through the downhill rollers to take the lead away from J-Mart.
Up front, Osborne checked out with the lead, taking the checkered flag by nearly eight seconds. Plessinger closed in on his Jeremy Martin, his former teammate, to set up a late battle for second place but never found himself in position to make the pass and ended up falling 10 seconds behind him by the end of the race.
Throughout all of this, a lot of shuffling continued behind the top three. Cantrell, the Troy Lee/Red Bull KTM rookie, was as high as fourth but ended up fading back to 14th. Hampshire, making his season debut after getting hurt during the supercross season, finished ninth after his top-four start. Savatgy was up to seventh but went down and fell back to 15th before rebounding to eighth. Alex Martin bounced back from the first-lap pileup to salvage seventh place. Ferrandis closed in on Cianciarulo in the closing minutes to take away fourth place from the Pro Circuit rider.
Moto 1 Results
1. Zach Osborne
2. Jeremy Martin
3. Aaron Plessinger
4. Dylan Ferrandis
5. Adam Cianciarulo
6. Austin Forkner
7. Alex Martin
8. Joey Savatgy
9. RJ Hampshire
10. Mitchell Harrison
11. Shane McElrath
12. Colt Nichols
13. Kyle Cunningham
14. Sean Cantrell
15. Luke Renzland
16. Nick Gaines
17. Michael Mosiman
18. Lorenzo Locurcio
19. Chase Sexton
20. Steven Clarke
…
35. Justin Hill
Moto 2
Through Jeremy Martin and Aaron Plessinger got strong starts again, Alex Martin ripped through traffic to steal the holeshot. Plessinger pressed Alex for the lead on the opening lap but was unable to make a pass. Jeremy settled into third behind them.
Not in that lead group was Moto 1 winner Zach Osborne, who was back in ninth after the opening lap.
A little more than seven minutes into the race, Jeremy passed Plessinger for second — a move that shifted the battle for the overall win into Jeremy’s favor. Austin Forkner soon followed Jeremy into third place.
Plessinger, potentially feeling the effects of his earlier injury, continued dropping spots over the next few minutes. As a result, Dylan Ferrandis moved into fourth and Osborne moved into fifth.
Up front, Jeremy Martin caught up to his older brother before the midpoint of the race. After several minutes of battling, Jeremy found an inside line that enabled him to take over the lead.
Following a tip-over from Forkner, the top five was J-Mart, A-Mart, Ferrandis, Osborne and Plessinger. With under 10 minutes to go, Osborne got around Ferrandis for third to move within two points of Jeremy for the overall victory. With Jeremy starting to open up a gap up front, that meant that Osborne would need to chase down and pass Alex before the checkered flag in order to tie Jeremy in the overall results and avoid losing any points.
Osborne would get his opportunity with about three minutes left on the clock. The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider took the spot away but immediately had google issues and had to move over and cut off Alex’s line to avoid being re-passed while he got it sorted out. Osborne would then have to ride out the remaining laps without goggles.
Jeremy went on to win the moto by eight seconds over Osborne. Though they tied in points for the day, Jeremy won the overall by virtue of having the better finish in Moto 2. It’s Martin’s second moto win and first overall win of the season.
Though Osborne was unable to add any distance between himself and Jeremy in the 250MX points race, he still increased his championship lead. That’s because Alex Martin has fallen from second to third in the points. Alex entered the day nine points back of Osborne but will leave with a 26-point hole to dig out of. Jeremy remains 18 points back of Osborne but is now in second.
In the closing laps, Plessinger also got around Alex to move into podium position. (Alex then dropped another spot to Ferrandis.)
Plessinger ended up third on the overall podium after a pair of third-place moto finishes.
The Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship resumes with Round 5 next Saturday at Muddy Creek.
Moto 2 Results
1. Jeremy Martin
2. Zach Osborne
3. Aaron Plessinger
4. Dylan Ferrandis
5. Alex Martin
6. Austin Forkner
7. Joey Savatgy
8. RJ Hampshire
9. Mitchell Harrison
10. Chase Sexton
11. Lorenzo Locurcio
12. Luke Renzland
13. Adam Cianciarulo
14. Shane McElrath
15. Sean Cantrell
16. Kyle Cunningham
17. Justin Hill
18. Nick Gaines
19. Bradley Taft
20. Henry Miller
…
30. Colt Nichols
36. Michael Mosiman
250 Overall Results
1. Jeremy Martin (2-1)
2. Zach Osborne (1-2)
3. Aaron Plessinger (3-3)
4. Dylan Ferradis (4-4)
5. Alex Martin (7-5)
6. Austin Forkner (6-6)
7. Joey Savtagy (8-7)
8. RJ Hampshire (9-8)
9. Adam Cianciarulo (5-13)
10. Mitchell Harrison (10-9)
11. Shane McElrath (11-14)
12. Luke Renzland (15-12)
13. Chase Sexton (19-10)
14. Lorenzo Locurcio (18-11)
15. Sean Cantrell (14-15)
16. Kyle Cunningham (13-16)
17. Colt Nichols (12-30)
18. Nick Gaines (16-18)
19. Justin Hill (35-17)
20. Michael Mosiman (17-36)
250 Class Rider Point Standings
1. Zach Osborne, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing (166)
2. Jeremy Martin (148)
3. Alex Martin (140)
4. Joey Savatgy (120)
5. Austin Forkner (119)
6. Aaron Plessinger (118)
7. Adam Cianciarulo (109)
8. Dylan Ferrandis (100)
9. Colt Nichols (98)
10. Mitchell Harrison (89)