Pirelli press release:

Image: Supplied.

The 38th annual Thor Spring Creek National saw JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki rider Alex Martin charge to his second Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship podium finish of the season on Saturday.

Feeding off of the energy from his home Minnesota crowd, Martin’s day started on the right foot as he set the quickest lap time in qualifying to earn pole position heading into the 250 Class motos. His JGRMX Suzuki RM-Z250 relied on the performance of Pirelli’s SCORPION™ MX32™ Mid Soft front tire, while he used both the SCORPION™ MX Soft and SCORPION™ MX32™ Mid Hard fitted with a mousse on the rear.

ing my day off with pole position was awesome,” said Martin “It was good to show that I had the speed to set the fastest lap time since the last time I did it was in 2016. I had good starts both motos today. The SCORPION™ MX Soft rear worked really well early in the day, but as the track dried up I made the decision to change to the SCORPION™ MX32™ Mid Hard rear for the final moto and I was really happy with my decision to switch it up and the comfort that it gave me. It’s always good to be on the podium, especially when it’s at your home race!”

When the gate dropped on the opening 250 Class moto, Martin narrowly missed out on grabbing the holeshot using the SCORPION™ MX32™ Mid Soft front and SCORPION™ MX Soft rear tires as he was pushed wide in the opening corner to start the race in third. Martin would battle for a podium position throughout the 30-minute-plus-two-lap moto and eventually crossed the checkered flag to take a hard-fought fourth.

Due to the Spring Creek MX Park soil conditions being harder than normal, Martin decided to switch from the SCORPION™ MX Soft rear tire to the SCORPION™ MX32™ Mid Hard for Moto 2. Similar to the opening moto, Martin used his SCORPION™ MX tires to once again get off to a strong start in third place. His efforts rewarded him with another fourth-place moto result at the finish. The consistent moto scores (4-4) carried him to the final step of the podium with a third-place overall finish and he now sits just eight points out of third in the championship standings.

“It was awesome to see Alex [Martin] capture a podium finish in front of his home crowd,” said Nick Walton, Off-Road Manager, Pirelli. “Today, he was able to demonstrate how well Pirelli’s SCORPION™ MX range is across the board by capturing good starts and finishes on several different tire combinations. Being able to adapt as the track changes throughout the day is critical and something that our tire range does very well.”

In the 450 Class, JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Racing’s Joey Savatgy battled for a top-five position for the majority of the first moto, however, he would come together with another rider in the final laps and remounted to finish ninth. Savatgy’s teammate Freddie Noren would finish just outside of the top-10 in 11th. Both riders used Pirelli’s SCORPION™ MX32™ Mid Soft front and SCORPION™ MX Soft rear tires.

For 450 Class Moto 2, Savatgy and Noren opted to switch to the SCORPION™ MX32™ Mid Soft rear tire to suit the ever-changing afternoon track conditions. Savatgy would make several passes to complete the moto in seventh, while Noren finished strong in ninth. Savatgy finished eighth overall (9-7) and Noren 11th overall (11-9).

The Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship will continue this weekend on Saturday, September 26 in Jacksonville, Florida for the Florida National at WW Ranch.