At round eight of the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series in Atlanta, Red Bull / KTM’s Ryan Dungey got his second win of the season and left the Georgia Dome with a semi-comfortable 27-point lead over Monster Energy / Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac with just nine rounds to go. From that point on, though, Tomac won five of the next six races and finished in front of Dungey at the only one he didn’t win. With that, Tomac pulled even with the #1, and the stage was set for a three race battle for the most prestigious title in dirt bike racing.
Tomac had all the momentum and eight wins to Dungey’s two heading into Salt Lake City, but everyone still assumed that Dungey could steal some momentum from the #3 if the circumstances were right in Utah. Well, in Salt Lake City, Dungey pulled the holeshot and Tomac exited the first turn in nearly last. If ever there was the perfect circumstance for the defending champion to wrestle some momentum away, this was it.
Instead, while Dungey checked out up front, Tomac went on what will go down in history as one of the most incredible charges the sport has ever witnessed. Tomac passed nearly half the field on the opening lap and went backwards for a lap after that, but from lap three on, everyone in attendance knew they were watching greatness. Tomac wasn’t passing riders, he was simply moving them out of the way, and by lap 19, he was in the lead and leaving Dungey and everyone watching in disbelief. Tomac would go on to win by six seconds and take sole possession of the 450SX Championship red plate heading into round 16.
Still trying to collect our thoughts after what we just witnessed, we caught up with Eli and asked the red plate holder about his incredible ride in Salt Lake City.
Eli, this has to be considered the ride of your life, I think. How are you feeling about it?
It was pretty awesome, really! If you want to talk about the heat race, I had some good battling in the heat race there. In the main event, I’m feeling good—feeling confident—and ended up getting buried on the start. That wasn’t part of the plan at all. I actually went backwards on lap two, and by that point, I had no choice but to go forward. I was able to do that. I was able to make up big chunks of time, especially in the whoops and in the sweeper turn.
It looked liked a track you really gelled with tonight?
It was a good race track for me and my motorcycle. I could put it wherever I wanted to. I was just feeling awesome tonight physically and on the track. It was just fun.
You talked about going backwards early on. Part of that was the little back and forth battle you had with Marvin Musquin. Obviously, he’s a teammate of Ryan’s, so was that a little nerve wracking? Marvin’s not normally too dirty, but he can get saucy. (laughs)
So, yeah, he made a good block pass on the second lap there. At the end of the day, I don’t think they’re going to do anything crazy out of hand. So we’re going to race hard, and that’s what we did. I had no choice to mess around with him; my goal is to go forward.
Is that something you think about at all? You got two KTMs, two Huskys, and their teammate is going head-to-head with you for the biggest dirt bike championship on earth.
No! I mean, for one, I’m going fast enough to where they’re not going to be able to do it. It would be kind of ridiculous for the team tactic thing.
What was your thought process when you come around the first turn buried and Ryan Dungey is leading? Did you still think, “I can win this?”
By lap two, I would say, no. By lap ten, though, I would say maybe—yeah! You know, with what I was feeling and what I was doing, you just never give up.
Is what’s going on right now a little surprising for you? This is something you’ve never been able to do in past SX seasons. You just came from nearly last with Ryan Dungey getting the holeshot and you caught, passed him and ran away with time to spare. I mean, it’s not Vince Friese getting the holeshot; it’s Ryan Dungey.
No, I’m not really surprised, because I felt awesome the whole time. I never was thinking about backing it down because I never had to. I never got tight, so I was just doing what I was doing.
Through the whoops you had an incredible run every lap through them. Was there anything you changed or did differently for the main, because I watched you earlier and didn’t notice you being that fast in them.
No, I think the biggest difference was the skim option versus jumping. During practice, I think we weren’t the fastest in that segment. It just happened to work out in the main. The skim was working.
You took quite a few risks tonight to get it done, too—quite a few block passes at the end of the whoops. At that point, are you just mentally going forward and not even thinking about the risks involved with the passes?
No, at this point, there is no choice for playing safety.
What’s the plan going into MetLife next weekend?
The plan is to do what we did tonight and that was win. I’ll try to get a bigger cushion for going into Vegas and try to keep winning.
Alright, I appreciate your time, Eli. That was a mind-blowing race tonight.
Thank you.
