Page 16 - ISSUE51

ELI TOMAC
450 MX / 4TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MPG
>> It has been a rough couple of races for Eli Tomac. The pre-season title favorite began the season with a dominant 1-1 at the opening round but has had his fair share of struggles since then. Bike problems, crashes and everything in between at Glen Helen and Thunder Valley have seriously hurt him in the points standings. He entered High Point down seventeen points to Marvin Musquin and was more than ready to get back to his winning ways.
Tomac looked solid in practice managing to qualify with the fourth fastest lap time of the morning. The track was rough, deep and rutted which fit Tomac’s style so he was excited for the racing to begin.
Moto one started promising for the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider as he snuck into sec- ond after the first few turns. He stayed aggressive and tried passing his teammate Josh Grant for the lead but pushed too hard and tucked the front end. He did it on a steep slope so it made it hard for him to remount and by the time he did, he was virtually in last place. From there he just went into damage control mode and tried to earn back as many points as possible. He charged hard for the entirety of the moto and would climb all the way up to finish in twelfth place. Another disappointing moto but he’d have to quickly put that behind him and get ready for moto two.
Tomac was done playing games in the second moto. He came around the first lap in second right behind Jason Anderson. He was smarter this time and stayed patient. He hounded him for the first three laps before forcing Anderson into a mistake and eas-
ily making the pass for the lead. The rest of the moto was a clinic. He checked out big time and even when Blake Baggett worked his way into second, he could not gain any ground. It had to feel good for Tomac to finally get back to his winning ways but his twelfth in the first moto still haunted him. His 12-1 scores would be enough to salvage fourth overall just missing out on the podium. He still managed to get closer to the points lead as now he sits eleven points behind Blake Baggett.
16 GRITMOTO • JUNE 18, 2017