Eli Tomac’s new mechanic, Ryan Dungey’s brother, Jade, says Eli Tomac requested more power from his factory KTM when he started initial testing – and KTM gave him exactly what he wanted!
Jade Dungey told Swapmoto: “So it’s full power, it’s fast. We gave him kind of like what our normal package is and then he was like, ‘that’s good, I need more power’. We gave him some ponies and he’s pretty happy right now. That thing barks pretty hard.
“Coming out of the shop, this is fast. Some of the other guys, we tried some parts with it, some of the other test guys are like, dude, this is too much! And that was maybe a fraction of what we gave Eli. So, like I said, we’re still in the development process, you know, like it is our fifth year on the bike, but we’re always learning and we’ll go race this weekend and maybe Eli wants a little less here, a little more there. So we’re probably going to be constantly always tinkering, but power wise, he’s really, really, really stoked on it.“
And with Eli winning first time out including getting great starts with the power he wants already, it looks like Tomac has taken to the KTM like a duck to water. With Jorge Prado also loving a powerful machine, something it took Kawasaki a long time to give him, it seems both riders are going to be very happy with their powerhouse KTM engines!
But will Tomac’s performance in Vancouver put pressure on Chase Sexton and Kawasaki? Sexton never seemed extremely happy with the KTM and certainly didn’t adapt as quick as Tomac and aligned with the issues Prado had at Kawasaki trying to get more power and a set-up he liked, all eyes will be on the Sexton/Kawasaki combination to see if Sexton can be as happy on the the bike as Eli Tomac seems to be on his uniquely cable-clutched KTM right now.
Get the full interiew with Jade below:
