The drama
of the 250 Class championship battle continued at Miller Motorsports Park, as Marvin Musquin and Jeremy Martin split moto wins once again, but thanks to strong riding, a stroke of good fortune and a little help from his teammate, Martin left the Zions Bank Utah National with the overall win in the 250 Class and a two-point lead in the championship battle headed into the final round.
Moto 1
Jordon Smith earned the MotoSport.com Holeshot Award thanks to a strong start, making him the first of two GEICO Honda riders to spend some time out front in this race. By the end of the opening lap, Smith had lost the lead to Jessy Nelson and second place to his teammate RJ Hampshire. Hampshire caught up to Nelson on Lap 5 and the two went back-and-forth battling for the lead, with Hampshire emerging with the top spot.
The start of the race provided some adversity for several riders, most notably points leader Jeremy Martin. After turning the fastest lap in qualifying, the Yamalube/Star Racing/Yamaha rider had the first gate selection and chose the inside gate. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t get the greatest start and it resulted in him getting squeezed out as the field made the left-hand turn towards the holeshot line. Joey Savatgy and Mitchell Oldenburg then made contact shortly after, sending both riders to the ground and holding up several riders behind them in the process, including Martin. As a result of all that, Martin found himself starting from back near the rear of the field.
Up front, Hampshire led more than half the race, but once Marvin Musquin and Cooper Webb cracked the top three, they made a hard charge towards the lead. Musquin took the lead away from Hampshire on Lap 9, with Webb moving into second. Webb applied constant pressure to Musquin for several laps, and it seemed like a matter of time until he would make the pass. But then as they went through the split lane, Webb made a mistake and tipped over, then struggled to get going. Webb fell back to third, and although he would re-pass Hampshire for second place, he had lost too much ground to Musquin to continue mounting a challenge against the Red Bull KTM rider. Musquin would go on to grab his class-leading 10th moto win of the season, and Webb took second.
As for Martin, he steadily worked his way through the field as he has had to do several times this season. With about 13:30 left on the clock, he finally cracked the top ten after passing Shane McElrath. He continued moving forward and looked destined for a fourth-place finish behind Hampshire, but on the final lap of the race, Hampshire went down just yards away from the finish line and couldn’t get his bike restarted in time. Martin rode by him to take away a third-place finish, while Hampshire lost a few more spots and ended up back in seventh.
Thanks to some resilient riding and a stroke of good fortune at the end of the race, Martin was able to minimize the damage in this moto, ultimately losing just five points to Musquin. That five-point swing is enough to put Musquin back into the points lead – at least temporarily – heading into Moto 2. The deficit right now sits at three points. Can Musquin take back the red plate for the first time since RedBud? Watch the second 250 Class moto live on ProMotocross.com at 5 p.m. ET to find out.
Moto 2
Things were looking good for Jeremy Martin when he grabbed a holeshot in the second moto and looked poised for a potential moto win. However an opening-lap crash forced the race to be red-flagged and restarted from scratch. Naturally, it was Marvin Musquin taking the MotoSport.com Holeshot Award when the race restarted, with Martin sitting outside the top five.
Cooper Webb was behind Musquin in second, and as the two came out of a rhythm section, Webb made his move and took over the lead. Meanwhile Martin worked his way around Christian Craig and Matt Bisceglia to move into third. At that point, a four-second deficit stood between third-place Martin and second-place Musquin.
At one point Webb got held up by lapped traffic, enabling Musquin to make up a lot of ground. Musquin went for the pass but couldn’t make it stick, so Webb remained in the lead. Then just past the midway point of the moto, Musquin made a mistake that allowed Martin to catch up to him, and once Martin got around Musquin, he immediately put some distance between himself and his championship rival.
One of the interesting things that everyone has wondered about is what would happen if Webb were in a position to help Martin – his Yamaha teammate – win a championship by letting him go past him. That opportunity finally came up, as Martin reeled in Webb, and Webb pretty clearly got out of the way and allowed his teammate to move around him into the lead.
That pass was important for a number of reasons. First, it put Martin back into the points lead. A second-place finish would have left Martin trailing Musquin by one single point entering the final round, but a first-place finish was enough to allow Martin to retain the red plate. He will lead Musquin by two points next week at Ironman. Second, it also gave the overall win to Martin instead of Webb.
After they crossed the finish line at the end of the moto, Martin gave a thumbs-up to his teammate, and then the two shared a fist-bump.
Martin and Webb share a moment after the race. (Photo: Matt Rice)
“I want to give a big thanks to Cooper,” Martin told NBC Sports’ Georgia Lindsay after the race. “I really appreciate that. [The championship race] is coming down to the wire.”
“That’s the way it is,” Musquin said of Webb allowing Martin to get by, although he acknowledged that Martin was faster and likely would have won the moto anyway. “I don’t have teammates, but I try my best.”
Martin gets his ninth moto win and fifth overall win of the season, but more importantly, he still has the edge in the championship. Musquin (1-3) finished second overall, and Webb (2-2) settled for third overall despite having a shot at the win had he put up a stronger resistance.
250 CLASS OVERALL RESULTS
1. Jeremy Martin (3-1)
2. Marvin Musquin (1-3)
3. Cooper Webb (2-2)
4. Aaron Plessinger (4-4)
5. Matt Bisceglia (6-6)
6. Zach Osborne (9-5)
7. RJ Hampshire (7-7)
8. Alex Martin (8-8)
9. Joey Savatgy (5-11)
10. Jessy Nelson (11-9)
11. Shane McElrath (12-10)
12. Toshiki Tomita (15-13)
13. Nick Gaines (16-14)
14. Christian Craig (10-32)
15. Martin Davalos (25-12)
16. Chase Marquier (14-19)
17. Marshal Weltin (13-35)
18. Hayden Mellross (21-15)
19. Justin Starling (18-18)
20. Brandon Scharer (22-16)