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O ELI TOMAC |
Only five points separated Eli Tomac and Ryan Dungey heading into the final round of the 2017 AMA Supercross season at Sam Boyd Stadium, and Tomac was gunning for his first ever premier class SX title. The Colorado native caught fire in late January of last year by clinching a clear-cut victory in Phoenix, commencing a streak of speed and domination that spanned the next couple of months. Barring a mechanical failure in Arlington and a costly mistake in New Jersey, Tomac finished no worse than second for the remainder of the season, racking up a total of nine wins in the process. It’s incredible what a little bit of confidence can do for a rider’s results; at the beginning of the year, Tomac was nowhere near the race winning performances exemplified by Roczen and Dungey, languishing outside of the top five. A lot of riders would contribute newfound confidence and improved results to a clicker adjustment; instead, it was a switch that clicked inside Tomac’s head that set him apart from the competition. If it wasn’t for Dungey’s trademark consistency throughout the 2017 season, the Kawasaki rider would have won the championship handily. Fresh off his first 450 Pro Motocross title, the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider will be eager to bag his first premier class title on the indoor circuit in 2018, and the smart money will be on him to win the title. At the Monster Energy Cup in October, Tomac was eager to defend his number one plate and earn himself bragging rights heading into the new year, but he made a costly mistake while battling fiercely with Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin. It’s fair to say that there will be plenty of battles between the two riders in the upcoming years of supercross racing, and Tomac is going to have to clean up the mistakes if he hopes to stand on the top step of the podium come the end of the season. It was a foregone conclusion that the Kawasaki rider was going to dominate the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross series, but his performances were up and down and it took until the final round of the series in Crawfordsville, Indiana for Tomac to clinch the title.
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THE PULSE • FEBRUARY 2018