A gritty late charge from Geico Honda’s Jeremy Martin wasn’t quite enough to overcome 250MX title rival Dylan Ferrandis at Spring Creek in moto two, describing his effort as ‘full bulldog’ mode afterwards.

Martin was a lowly fifth in the first moto at his home track, but a shock adjustment and improved start set up a thrilling fight with Ferrandis in the second encounter.

The result saw Star Yamaha’s Ferrandis snatch back the red plate in Lucas Oil Pro Motocross’ 250 Class, but only by three points with just three rounds left to run in the shortened 2020 season.

“That was just me full bulldog, just pretty much giving her the gusto, giving her the beans to try to do whatever at that point to try to make something,” Martin said after making a late attack on the final lap of the moto and crossing the finish within half a second of the Frenchman.

“I knew that if I could have got in front of him or whatever, maybe I could have been able to fend him off. The roles would have been reversed and he would have been going full crazy to try to send it into stuff to try to get me back. I just wicked her up and that’s everything I had.”

Despite finishing runner-up, Martin was still satisfied post-race to mount that type of late challenge on his title rival in such convincing fashion. It was a shot of confidence even if he did fall short in the end.

“I got close a couple times, but Dylan was really good,” he admitted. “I was putting some pressure on him and he did make some mistakes, but I made some mistakes too. He was really good going down the first set of whoops and was really good on that 180 turn back, he was really fast – consistently faster than me.

“I couldn’t quite get up on him and he would kind of pull me there, so I would try to get him other areas. I was putting pressure on him and I was hoping maybe something would happen. I tried, but he was going fast. There’s only so many opportunities to kind of pass at Millville and I’ve always kind of known that.

“He did what he needed to, that’s for sure. For me, it was nice to battle with him – the last time we were in that position he waxed me pretty good at Ironman in moto one. It was nice to see the 14 on the back of that chest protector there for the entire second moto.”