Page 34 - ISSUE_77

ELI TOMAC
450 MX / 1ST
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> After a disappointing 2018 Supercross season, Eli Tomac showed up at Hangtown eagerly anticipating a clean slate. After round one of Supercross, he was already in a deep hole in the points standings and he would never really be
able to recover from despite winning the most races. He was excited to begin his outdoor motocross title defense on an even playing eld and he wanted to make an early statement and set the tone for the rest of the series. He dominated Hangtown a year ago in 2017 with a strong 1-1 performance and he wanted to experience a little déjà vu this year and repeat that same kind of effort.
Tomac got right to work in the opening practice qualifying session and threw down a blistering 2:15 lap time. No one else was even under a 2:17. He clearly made his presence felt and showed that the weight of that number one plate was not going to slow him down. He backed up his strong showing with another one in the second timed qualifying ses- sions and was clearly the man to beat heading into the two motos.
When the gate dropped for the rst moto, it saw Tomac hovering just inside the top ten. Any other rider would have had a little panic set in being that far from the lead but Tomac didn’t even bat an eye. He climbed to fth by the end of lap one and then passed two of his likely toughest competitors this summer, Justin Barcia and Marvin Musquin, on lap two to assume third position. However, on the following lap, Musquin would retaliate and sneak his way back around Tomac and the two rivals would assume second and third respectively after both passing Christian Craig. Tomac then passed Jason Anderson to take over second place and this initiated the two-way duel for the lead. Musquin had a slight lead over Tomac and for a handful of laps the two played cat and mouse. The lead yo-yoed back and forth until Musquin bobbled off the track allowing Tomac an easy transition into the lead. Tomac would calmly ride the rest of the race up front while slowly inching away from Musquin and the rest of the eld. It was a great win to begin the season and set himself up nicely for a similar ride in moto two.
Tomac’s rst holeshot of the day wasn’t the greatest and his second holeshot of the day would be even worse. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider was totally buried and found himself barely inside the top twenty during the rst lap. This time a slight panic may have set in. He had a plethora of riders between him and the lead and he was going to have to be smart on how he battled forward. He began his hard charge forward by getting into tenth after lap one and then into seventh after lap two. There he got into battle with a slew of riders including Benny Bloss, Phil Nicoletti, and Marvin Musquin. His charge got hindered by this tough pack of riders and his number of passes slowed to just one per lap. It slowly but surely got him into fourth by lap six. He slid in behind Barcia and began hounding the Monster Energy Factory Yamaha rider. The two enjoyed a hard-fought battle for two laps before Tomac nally made the pass. He took over third and clearly was ready to take the lead because on the next lap he passed both Musquin and Anderson to take the lead and he never looked back after that. He cruised to his second moto win of the day taking the overall win with the dominant 1-1 performance. It could be a long season for the rest of the 450 class if Tomac keeps riding like he did here in Hangtown.
34 GRITMOTO • MAY 21, 2018