Words by: Dan Lamb – Photos by: Hoppenworld
Welcome back, Eli Tomac! Since crashing and destroying both his shoulders after winning the first five motos of the 2015 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross 450MX Championship, Monster Energy / Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac has been the most frustrated, consistent podium finisher we’ve ever witnessed. Week in and week out the #3 has found himself on the box in 2016, but RCH / Suzuki’s Ken Roczen’s dominance and the questions surrounding Eli’s inability to stop it have made Eli visibly unhappy on a weekly basis. Well, there’s nothing that will halt the questions and brighten up a man’s mood quite like a hard fought 1-1, and that’s exactly what the former 250MX National Champion accomplished at Southwick last weekend.
From qualifying—where Eli was 2nd fastest in first session and fastest overall in the second session—through the final moto of the day, Tomac looked like a much more confident rider in the sand of Southwick. In moto one, Eli rounded the first turn around sixth, but on lap eight, he was able to do what nobody has been able to do in 2016: pass Roczen for the lead and run away from him. All year it’s been the #94 Show, but in moto one at Southwick, Eli took out all his frustration on Kenny and crossed the line with a twenty-four-second win. For Eli, the moto one win had to be a huge monkey off his back, but could he back it up in moto two?
In the second moto, it was the #94 and the #3 first and second at the end of lap one, but it was quickly apparent that Kenny was a different rider in moto two. It was six laps before Tomac would make a pass stick on the German, but this time Kenny refused to let him get away. Then on lap 13, Eli laid it down, allowing Kenny by, but the Kawasaki rider went right back on the attack and into the lead. For the next seven laps, Kenny matched Eli lap for lap and made a few aggressive pushes at him, but Eli would not and could not let this one slip away. Eli hung on to secure the 1-1 on the day and his first overall win since Glen Helen a year ago.
Now that Eli answered the can he beat Roczen question, the big question now is, did he dig himself too big of a hole in the first half of the season? After Eli’s 1-1, he still trails Kenny by 47-points with just ten motos left on the schedule. That’s a huge mountain to climb for Eli—compounded by all the top 450MX talent that’s injured. Riders that could potentially get between Eli and Kenny are home recovering. The Championship could potentially be out of reach for Eli without a huge mistake from Kenny, but for the fans, the racing just got a lot more interesting.
After the race Eli sat down in the press conference and took some questions from the press. MotoXAddicts’ Chase Yocom was in the house to ask him some questions.
Eli, you went 1-1 today for first overall. You’re currently second in the Championship, 47-points down on Ken Roczen. Watching the two motos, did you feel like you had a good read on the track on what it was going to do to know where you should go?
Southwick is always ever changing, but it was cool to see that in practice it was a little bit smooth, and by the end of the second practice, it started coming around and drying out a little bit. It got a little bit softer and deeper. For the most part, I really enjoyed the new direction or the original direction of it.
It looked like some of the passes you actually set up on the start straight just by holding the throttle on.
Yeah, the sand is all about momentum and not burying it somewhere and losing your speed. There were sections where it was a little bit tighter and you had to wait for things to come to you and other sections, like the mechanics’ area, where you’re just holding it wide open and praying. There was also a pretty gnarly section at the top of that hill. It turned into a nasty, nasty track but at the same time fun.
With all the second place finishes you’ve had—obviously 1-1 today—did you find the missing piece or did you find your stride?
You know, this place is so unique, and I’ve always enjoyed riding the sand. I came into the day with a positive mindset: “I’m just going to go out here and have fun with my dirt bike,” and we did. I don’t know what else to really say. Any time you go out and get a win it’s good.
Can you explain how the track was different compared to 2013?
I thought some of the hills were a little bit better. Some of the rollers and some of the turns they tightened up. A few sections, there was different corners, and I enjoyed it. The sketchiest part was the start.
Did the track change a lot from practice into the motos? What were the major differences between the first and the second moto?
Between moto one and moto two it was just bigger bumps. Some of the outsides were gone. In the first moto, there was still some dozer berms where you could go out there and rail them. Yeah, it just kept getting pushed out—a little bit blown out—so you gotta start tightening up stuff. We were using a couple more insides, I guess, in the second moto.
On that pass on Kenny in that second moto, did you know that line was there, or did you see it and set it up?
I thought it was actually pretty cool that you could go where you wanted to here. You didn’t lose a whole lot of time, and you could make passes if you wanted to. All around it was good that way.
Can you take us through when you went down and what your mindset was?
Yeah, when I slid out, that corner had a small inside rut and my front end just missed the start of it. So it just pushed on the hard pack base there and tipped over. I tried to hop up as fast as I can. At that point, your heart rate kind of spikes and you’re kind of freaking out. Luckily I was able to get it [the lead] back there.
How important is this for your confidence the rest of the season.
I mean, it’s big. A win’s a win, so you take it.
In that second moto after the crash, you had Kenny right on you. How much pressure were you feeling in that second moto?
I was riding on the edge; you can say that. I think we both had some pretty good moments out there. We were pushing the edge the whole way. It was a battle literally ’til the end. Some of the lappers kind of came into play again a little bit here and there. Everyone has to go through them, but sometimes they’re bad.
Kenny had a lot of 1-1’s the first half of the season, and now you start the second half with a 1-1. Do you believe you can put in some back-to-back 1-1’s in the second half like Kenny did the first half?
We’re going to do our best to do it again, but we’ll just keep improving, and at least we made it to the top step today.
Did you actually practice on some sand tracks, or were you flat tracking? It was awesome watching you in some of them turns.
Honestly, my track at home—when we till it up and rip it up—it gets really sandy, so it’s not too far off of my track at home.
How good was it to get out of that no man’s land you were in for a while? You had some lonely races, so to be able to get in there and dice like you guys did, how was that?
Yeah, it was fun. It was just a battle, like I said earlier. It was intense, and we both fought all the way ’til the end. It was good clean racing. It was a gnarly one.
