Kit Palmer | March 5, 2016
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac has had a pretty disappointing first half of the 2016 Monster Energy/AMA Supercross Series with only one podium in the first eight rounds. However, he showed up at Daytona ready to do battle, setting fast time in qualifying, then backing that up with a win in the second heat race of the night.
Eli Tomac (3) held Ryan Dungey at bay for 19 laps to take the win. Photography by Hoppenworld.com
In the main event, points leader and defending champ Ryan Dungey (Red Bull KTM) snatched the holeshot, but two turns later, Dungey went wide leading into the track’s first rhythm section and Tomac dived underneath him to take over the lead. About two turns after that, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel bobbled going into a turn while in third and was bumped from behind by fellow Frenchman Marvin Musquin, causing Pourcel to fall and handing third place to Musquin.
At that point, the podium was decided. For the next 19 laps, Dungey did everything he could to pressure Tomac into an error, but the error simply didn’t come. Tomac took his first win of the season, and as a member of the Monster Energy Kawasaki team, with Dungey close behind him, and Musquin cruising in for third.
“This is huge,” Tomac said. “Even though this event is so unique as part of our supercross series, this is the spirit the team needed to lift us up. We’ve been down in the dumps a little bit because the expectations were high at the beginning of the season. It’s been tough. That time, I was able to get out there early with the start and just lay it down, and I was having fun on the motorcycle; that’s what counts, and it paid off in that main event.”
While second place is never satisfying for a champion like Dungey, it represented a milestone for him as well: It was his 25th-consecutive 450cc supercross podium finish, matching an all-time mark set by Chad Reed (who was a disappointing 12th tonight).
“I kind of didn’t really realize it was building up until people started pointing it out, and even then I needed to focus on the racing and apply myself,” Dungey said. “It didn’t happen overnight. It happened each and every day, one day at a time, and I just tried to perform my best on each and every moment.”
“Daytona is always a nasty one,” Dungey added, “but it’s good to be on the podium and pick up some valuable points in the overall championship.”
Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart suffered a hard crash in his heat race. He was slow to his feet but did get back on the bike and rode back to the pits. He never returned.
With second place, Dungey extends his points lead over Ken Roczen, who was fifth place on the night after getting off to a midpack start, to 39 points and Tomac moves from sixth to fourth in points, 20 points farther behind. Jason Anderson (fourth place tonight) is third in points, splitting Roczen and Tomac as the series heads to Toronto.
– Steve Cox
RESULTS
450SX
- Eli Tomac (Kaw)
- Ryan Dungey (KTM)
- Marvin Musquin (KTM)
- Jason Anderson (Hus)
- Ken Roczen (Suz)
- Trey Canard (Hon)
- Josh Grant (Suz)
- Christophe Pourcel (Hus)
- Justin Brayton (KTM)
- Cole Seely (Hon)
- Justin Bogle (Hon)
- Chad Reed (Yam)
- Blake Baggett (Suz)
- Vince Freese (Hon)
- Kyle Cunningham (Suz)
- Mike Alessi (Hon)
- Jacob Weimer (Suz)
- Weston Peick (Yam)
- Davi Millsaps (KTM)
- Nick Schmidt (Suz)
- Phil Nicoletti (Yam)
- Thomas Hahn (Yam)
