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ELI TOMAC
450 SX / 2ND
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / KILPATRICK DESIGN / WILSON
>> Eli Tomac has proved himself as the man to beat ever since Ken Roczen’s untimely exit to the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross series. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider has racked up eight wins over the course of the season heading into the fourteenth round of racing in Seattle, bringing him within four points of Ryan Dungey in the title chase. Tomac has the momentum on his side after grabbing another victory one week prior in St. Louis and will be feeling
right at home in the soft, rutted conditions of the pacific northwest. He stormed out onto the track in the one and only practice session as if he’d been riding it
all morning, immediately blitzing his way through the obstacles on the way to
the top of the board. He wasn’t able to maintain the leading spot for the entire ten minutes, but he Tomac was able to lay down extremely consistent lap times, putting him in a good position heading into the night show. The heat race was a bit of a challenge for Tomac once racing got underway in Rice-Eccles Stadium; he got caught up on the inside of the first corner with Jason Anderson and the two of them were forced to carve their way to the front of the pack. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider found himself stuck back in eighth position as the first flying lap began, but he was able to work his way towards the front with aggres- sion, eventually crossing the line in third place. His start was even worse in the main event as Tomac found himself buried outside of the top ten in the opening corner, but he managed to make up a handful of positions on the opening lap. The Colorado native found some lines in the main event that no one else was executing; a triple-triple-triple through one of the long rhythm sections, as well as a triple out of a corner after the finish line. He was able to utilize those lines to clock lap times over one second faster than anyone else on the track as he put in an incredible charge to third position by the late stages of the moto. Unfortu- nately, he made a mistake and went down over the big double jump, but Tomac was still able to remount and salvage second position, therefore giving him the red plate for the next round of the series in Salt Lake City, Utah.
14 GRITMOTO • APRIL 9, 2017