What a year Jeremy Martin has had! It's not surprising that GEICO Honda have announced a two year extension on the two time National Motocross champion which will see him through to the end of 2019. After an impressive cameo appearance at Daytona supercross on the factory Honda CRF450R he had originally planned to make the leap into the 450 class for next season. It seems he has decided to stay down for now though and continue his path on in the 250 class. I for one cannot blame him for this decision, he has had an amazing year and coming second outdoors has given him a taste again for the top spot :) He is a young guy and why not have another shot at the title before moving up.
"I'd say there are two reasons why I decided to stay in the 250 class. The first one is really results—we had a good year and I finished second outdoors, but I want to do even better. I want to win more races and championships so when I move up to the 450 full-time I'm coming in with a lot of momentum. It was a big learning year working with a new team and a new bike and I really like the people over at GEICO Honda—I'm excited to keep working with them.
"The second reason is the new Honda CRF250R. I haven't ridden one yet but I've heard it has a lot of the same characteristics of the CRF450R I raced at the Daytona Supercross. As soon as I hopped on that bike, I was comfortable immediately. From what I've heard the new 250 is very similar, if not even better. So I'm really looking forward to racing that bike."
Honda have lined Martin up to start testing the all new 2018 CRF250R in California next week. He will then be jetting off to Japan to do some race testing for a round of the All-Japan Motocross Championships in October.
This year Martin was a holeshot machine and even managed to grab one in his 450 debut at Daytona Supercross! Not content with that he rode on to grab second place.. amazing! With that success in mind Honda seem ok with him riding the 450 during the downtime between East and West Supercross season.
"I had so much fun on the 450 at Daytona last year and I can't wait to race some more races on it. Will definitely get me a lot of experience. When I do move to the 450s full-time and have to race twice as many races against even stiffer competition, I want to be as ready as I can be."
GEICO Honda Team Manager
"We're excited to have Jeremy back to race the all-new CRF250R for 2018. I got to know him last year and he's a great guy and obviously a hard worker. We're going to be ready to run up front all year."
GEICO Honda have confirmed the lineup for 2018 which consists of Martin, Christian Craig, RJ Hampshire, Chase Sexton and Cameron McAdoo.
Seems like good times ahead for team red!
