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ELI TOMAC
450 SX / 1ST
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / MATTINGLY DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Welcome to the land of Ten Thousand Lakes, the great state of Minnesota. The thought of lakes alone seems to bring an eerie amount of fear over the competitors on the Monster Energy SX tour, as last week, the accumulation of rain engulfed the track in Seattle. A scary sight indeed, luckily the roof of this mega stadium has closed, pushing all precipitation to the wayside, and allowing a dry canvas to be carved. Eli Tomac has marveled at the sight of a clear, pristine raceway, salivating at the thought of tearing his machine throughout the rims
of these bowl turns. When practice began, he was on a one-track mind, never fearing who was around. On the balls of his feet, he would carry an absurd amount of momentum into
the whoop section, wheeling over the rst roller, and merely skipping across the ones that laid after; all the while, never letting go of that waf e grip, seemingly melted to his right palm. Engraining his presence the minds of all his competitors, his pure speed could be seen even by the naked eye. There was no doubt he would come for gold once races would commence, and it would all start with the rst main event. Dashing out of the gate for the beginning of
the night show, it was all he could do to keep the machine tamed. Pushing forward, he got out to an early lead, blitzing the eld with a blurred, green-hulk type presence. Anderson
was behind, and Tomac, as he reiterated to the media this week, was here for one thing, and one thing only; and that was winning. Stepping on to each of the tabletop’s, in the furthest rhythm lane, he seemed to be hitting all of his marks, and it would result in a solid lead, with victory waiting. The second moto saw a polar-opposite position, in starting terms, occur for the number 3; yet he would continue to inch up, eventually being stopped in his tracks by a foursome of riders, who were gridlocked. Anderson, Baggett, Peick, you name it, and they were involved, yet Tomac would hold strong, inching his way into fourth, navigating this blue- grooved like surface, the track had developed into. Peick would lie just ahead, at race end, but it would be too little to late. He would nish fourth. Tomac would rally to a decent start off the line for moto three, being nestled in the top ve, and shuf ing throughout numerous posi- tions. He found himself trailing Weston Peick early on, when a sudden washout of the num- ber 34 Suzuki, caused Tomac to ram into the downed machine; yet, he somehow managed to stay upright, and would plug away at the lead. However, Anderson had begun to sprint, while Musquin would be stingy for second. The three would hold on in this order, with Tomac doing just enough, in terms of overall scoring, to claim victory. He would walk away smiling, know- ing that his job was done.
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GRITMOTO • APRIL 15, 2018