Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac ran to a fifth straight AMA Supercross victory in The Dome, St Louis last Saturday for what was the thirteenth round of seventeen in the 2017 series. With only four events left on the slate #3 has shrunk the gap to champion and standings leader Ryan Dungey to just 4 points as the season hovers on the edge of a riveting climax.
Around a tight and rough track that was not easy for passing, a crowd of more than 53,000 people watched Tomac seize control of the Main Event from the holeshotting Dungey and establish a small lead. The KTM man tried to fire back and kept Tomac in check until he struggled to lap Yamaha’s Chad Reed in sixteenth place; Tomac was more incisive through the backmarkers and broke free to toast his eighth success of the campaign and first for Kawasaki in St Louis (a host of supercross for twenty-two years now) since 2013.
“The Heat race was a little bit rough…and I wasn’t feeling that great,” said Tomac who has now totalled twelve career wins. “I figured out my start for the Main and that was huge. I made the pass early and did what I could to open up a bit of space but Ryan was there a lot. I’m glad we were able to get our act together.”
Tomac’s hot streak has applied yet more pressure on Dungey. One more victory for the Kawasaki ace and 1-2 finish for the pair as in St Louis will bring the distance between the rivals to 1 point. Races in Seattle, Salt Lake City, New Jersey and Las Vegas remain with a hefty 200 points still to bag.
The competition for the 2015 250SX East region is nearly as close. In St Louis Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy had an eventful night. #17 was leading the Main until he became cross-rutted in a rhythm section and exited the track. The incident allowed Jordon Smith to inherit the lead. Savatgy then had an altercation with a backmarker, and almost came to grief on the triple. The KX250F rider collected himself to push Smith hard in the final two laps and missed out on the chequered flag by fractions of a second. Despite the pulsating ups-and-downs of the race, Savatgy was able to leave St Louis with his narrow 6 point lead over Smith intact and only 12 separating him and Zach Osborn in third.
“The rear end came around and I found myself off the track,” Savatgy said. “I came back on near the tunnel and hit another rider that put my front brake into a position where it was barely usable. It took me a little while to get used to that but then we put on a good charge…but it was frustrating.”
“We just keep on going and if we can just eliminate these mistakes each week…that I’m tired of talking about! We’ve made some good changes to the bike and I feel good and our plan doesn’t change; we will go out there and try to win Main Events…which we haven’t done enough of so far.”
Monster Energy AMA Supercross moves to Century Link Field in Seattle next week and where the 250SX West category will be back in action. 250SX East reactivates at New Jersey on April 29th.