Monster Energy Supercross is lining up for the ‘final double’ with trips to New Jersey and Las Vegas left on a busy 2016 slate but the fifteenth round of seventeen went down in the confines of the Gillette Stadium in New England and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac found some sharp form to walk the podium for the first time since his success in Daytona.
As one of the very few new sites on the Supercross trail, Foxborough was the setting for almost 39,000 fans to find a seat and digest the latest episode (set in the afternoon instead of the usual night programme) in what has become a duel for weekly race victory between reigning number one Ryan Dungey and former teammate Ken Roczen. On this occasion it was Roczen who ruled the twenty laps of the Main Event for his fourth triumph of the campaign and deny Dungey a second consecutive (third in total) championship-winning party. The latter still posted his thirty-first podium result in a row but had no answer to the speed of Tomac who pushed into second place after a top five start; the 23 year old displaying some of his potential on the KX450F in his first term with the factory team.
“I rode like myself in the Main Event, made a few good moves in the first couple of laps and got in the mix early,” the former 250SX champ said. “I felt really good on the track and was able to do a few rhythms different than anyone else, which really helped early on.”
Monster Energy’s Chad Reed picked up a top ten finish to guard fifth position in the 450SX championship standings. In the 250SX Monster Energy Pro Circuit’s Tyler Bowers and Gannon Audette were also top ten runners with sixth and seventh places respectively.
Supercross moves on and to the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, this weekend for the penultimate episode of what has been another showcase of resilience and consistency from Dungey with exciting flashes from the likes Jason Anderson, Roczen and Marvin Musquin.