SWITCHING GEARS:
COLT MARTIN
Colt Martin put his name in the history books back in 2018 when he won the 51cc (4-6) Special Limited class at the Loretta Lynn Amateur National Motocross Championship. The youngster from Alabama made steady progress last year in the 51cc (7-8) class and continually improved his results over the course of the season, notably recording an impressive top-five finish at Loretta’s against older competition. Martin went onto the overall podium at the Baja Brawl, won motos at The Motoplayground Race at Ponca City, and eventually captured the 51cc (7-8) title at Mini Os in November. The Cobra Elite rider has started doing a lot more training on the 65cc machine and has begun to mix it up in the 65cc (7-9) class as well, aiming to qualify for Loretta’s this year to provide himself with a new challenge. Nonetheless, Martin is in fine form in the 51cc Sr. classes and he’ll be one to watch this year in Hurricane Mills. He showed the speed to snag a title this year at Spring A Ding Ding, but things just didn’t fall his way which has only motivated him to train harder during the lockdown. We had a quick conversation with Colt to talk about his training at GPF, winning first prize at his local tech fair, and riding the subway in Oakland.
What have you been up to during the quarantine lately?
I'm at GPF right now, I've been riding probably every day.
What were you doing when you were back home in Alabama after you got back from Texas?
I was just training, fishing, and playing Supercross 3 and that's really it.
How often do you go and stay at GPF to train?
Maybe every month I go there. We ride a lot of local tracks, too.
What sort of local tracks are you able to ride when you're back home?
Monster Mountain and Mulberry, they're good tracks.
Did you take a little bit of time off after racing was canceled or did you continue training?
I just took a couple of weeks off and started going at it again. The local tracks were still open.
We saw on your Instagram that you 3D printed a tool at school to help you with your riding. Could you explain what you did there?
So for some kids like me, it's hard for me to keep my toes in, like I really don't do it. So I invented a tool that you just put on your footpeg and it will just close in your foot and it'd be perfect, it'd just go right in!
As a part of your Tech Team at school, you went to your local area tech fair and won with your invention and earned a trip to State. When is that?
Yeah, the States got canceled because of this (coronavirus) but I'm still happy because I got to the regional and I won there!
Switching gears back to racing, you ended up getting the 51cc (7-8) title outdoors last year at Mini Os. How awesome was it to win that one?
Yeah, it was definitely fun because I haven't gotten a championship since I've been in the 50 Sr classes. In supercross, I was really fast and my friend just beat me by a wire, but I've just been determined to win a championship and I did! I figured I had a better chance going into motocross 'cause I'm not really a supercross person.
You'd rather hold it wide open?
Uh-huh.
At the beginning of the 2020 season, you went out to the west coast and did the Supercross Futures in Oakland? What was that like?
Yeah, it was definitely really cool and I rode a train in the subway, it was really weird. (laughs) It was definitely crazy and it was fun 'cause I got to see what California is like. It was a cool place just to explore like the Chinatown that they had.
Did you eat any weird food there or anything?
No, the thing that grossed me out was like french fries, but they were like wood. They looked like they were wood.
After that, you got to step it up to another level and race inside a jam-packed stadium for the KTM JR SX in Atlanta. How was that?
It was really cool because you could see and hear everybody cheering. The pass that I made (for the win) was really cool!
What was it like racing on the actual track that the pros race on?
It was definitely crazy with the whoops and because there was like a tabletop but the tabletop was backward; it was weird. But it felt really good to win!
You got multiple podium finishes at Spring A Ding Ding in your 51cc classes and mixed it up in the 65cc (7-9) Limited class as well. How'd the weekend go for you at Underground?
Yeah, it definitely went good. I was really close to a championship but I just messed up and it cost me a lot, so it just messed me up and I was tryin' to catch up to 2nd place but I just ran out of time.
Were you happy with how you rode there and your speed and everything?
Yeah, I've been riding my 65 a lot so I'm trying to get better on it. I've been at GPF workin' on that.
What's it been like for you learning the clutch and getting used to the bigger bike?
It doesn't feel like nothin' to me. It just feels like bigger and I don't feel like nothin' else has really changed.
2018 you won the title in the (4-6) class at Loretta's, last year you got a top-five overall your first year in the (7-8) class. Are you going for the title this year?
Yeah, I'm gonna try to win it this year and it's definitely gonna be hard.
Do you know what your plans will be after Loretta's going into next season?
I'm probably gonna move up to the 65 and see if we can get some championships on it. We're going to try and qualify for Loretta's on it this year, too. We'll do the 65cc (7-9) and the 51cc (7-8).