From national champ to 'glorified groundskeeper' Millville's Jeremy Martin adjusting to retirement

Jul. 19—MILLVILLE — A decade ago, Jeremy Martin was on top of the Pro Motocross world, a two-time defending national champion.

These days, in his words, Martin is "a glorified groundskeeper."

And, truth be told, the 33-year-old Millville native who won the 2014 and 2015 Pro Motocross 250 Class national titles is mostly content running a lawn mower and a weed whacker at Spring Creek MX Park, the motocross track owned by his parents, John and Greta.

With his pro racing days behind him — Martin won the last moto of his career nearly a year ago to the day at Spring Creek — he has followed in the shoes of his older brother, Alex, and his twin sister, Jennifer, by digging into the family business.

Sometimes that means strengthening relationships with current or potential sponsors, sometimes it means working with officials from the Pro Motocross series, and sometimes it means trimming the grass where the 20,000 fans who descended upon his family's property this week walked, parked or camped.

"It's just like I'm basically a glorified groundskeeper," Jeremy Martin said with a laugh. "And then when you're done with that, then you have to get in the office and put your business hat on. So it doesn't really end, right? And there's a lot of moving parts to this business. And from the outdoor stuff to in-the-office sponsorship, stuff with MX Sports and Feld Entertainment and everything like that.

"So let's just say I'm in business school 101. Have to be a jack-of-all-trades right now."

Diving into the intricacies of running a business — especially one that has been a premier stop on the 11-round Pro Motocross series every summer for more than four decades — doesn't leave the fan-favorite affectionately known as "J-Mart" with much time to think about not riding.

Still, on weeks like this, when the best motocross riders in the world and thousands of fans who have cheered him for more than a decade come to visit, Martin can't help but get the itch to get back on the track.

While he didn't ride with the pros on Saturday, Martin did ride in the amateur races on Friday, in the 250B and 125 two-stroke classes. Producers from Peacock then convinced Martin to ride during Press Day — a handful of pros ride for 30 minutes on the day before the races, to give local and national media a chance to get video and photos of pros on the track — and record video of a lap around the track on a GoPro camera strapped to his helmet.

"I don't do much riding anymore," Martin said, "but I brought the boots out (Friday). I did a little amateur racing ... it's kind of nice to put the boots and gear back on. This level (the pros) is pretty insane. I'm glad that chapter is behind me."

Jeremy and Alex also played key roles in redesigning two well-liked areas of the track. First, Mount Martin, the 300-foot hillclimb and descent on the track's west side, was cut off at the midpoint of the descent and an S-curve to the bottom of the track was added. Then, on the back side of the track, the famous Millville sand whoops have been replaced with rollers, which are larger, rounded, spread-out hills.

"I think the biggest thing was that (Mount Martin) was really cool going up, right?" Jeremy said. "All the way from the bottom to the top. But coming down was really fast and I think at this point we all know the risk of everything. And it was like, 'what can we do to slow it down?' We don't want to see anyone unfortunately go down."

The riders who were at Milville over the weekend are the best in the world, so Martin said they'd have little trouble navigating the changes to the track.

"Especially at this level, you've rode your amateur career, you've done so many things, that at this point you've got to be comfortable being uncomfortable," he said, "and you've got to be able to adapt. Every weekend you're somewhere new. Even in supercross it's a new layout every weekend.

"And then you come outdoors and there are little tweaks here and there. And I think even if you look at outdoors, tracks form differently year to year. Spring Creek will be different this year than it was last year. So you've got to be good at just making it happen. You have to adjust."