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Arnaud Tonus has enjoyed a pretty consistent 2016 outdoor season so far. He has been improving
at each round and wanted to continue doing so at Red Bud. He started off hot in qualifying practice throwing down the third fastest lap time. He looked smooth and comfortable on the track and was ready
to compete. Tonus suffered from a rough start in moto one coming around the first lap buried in nineteenth position. He had
a lot of ground to make up so he began doing so immediately. He hopped up into fifteenth by lap two and looked aggressive.
He made moves on Cunningham, Renzland and Harrison in the next several laps to move into twelfth by the halfway point. He made work of Davalos a lap later to move up to eleventh. He had a big gap to make up if he wanted to reel in McElrath in tenth before the race was over. He plugged away, inching up on him but would not be able to get close enough and he would settle for eleventh. Tonus got a better start in the second moto and emerged from the first lap where he left off in the first moto in eleventh place. He got right to work once again and hopped up into ninth by lap three. He then set his sights on his Pro Circuit Monster Energy Kawasaki teammate Adam Cianciarulo for eighth. He reeled him in and the two enjoyed a nice battle before Tonus would make the pass stick halfway through the race. A few laps after he passed his teammate, he would make the move on Davalos for seventh. His surge forward wouldn’t stop there, as he was gifted sixth place from another teammate in a crashed Joey Savatgy. With a handful of laps left, he found himself trying to chase down Shane McElrath yet again and like in the first moto, he would come up short. Even though he didn’t get McElrath, the sixth place in the moto was by far his best performance of the season and his 11-6 scores were good enough for ninth overall; a career best. The Swiss rider keeps garnering momentum and keeps getting better week after week. At this pace he will be a top five guy by the end of the season.
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