Ferrandis and Tomac on Oakland – forward strides


Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Eli Tomac had a solid second outing with the team, winning his heat race and finishing fourth in last night’s Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX Main Event in Oakland, California. His teammate Dylan Ferrandis narrowly missed a top-five finish, crossing the line sixth at the RingCentral Coliseum.

After a tough season opener at Anaheim 1, the 450 team bounced back with a great qualifying effort and topped the timesheets with a 1-2 result. Tomac bested his teammate by a mere .07 of a second and then went on to win his first heat race on the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing YZ450F. In the Main Event, he found himself eighth after the first lap but quickly made his way into the top five and threw down the fastest lap of the race on Lap 4. He made the pass for fourth at the halfway mark and kept pushing, but the frontrunners had built a comfortable lead and ultimately finished fourth.

Ferrandis didn’t get the starts he was looking for, finishing fifth in his heat race. In the main event, he made another charge through the pack, making his way from 16th to sixth as the race passed the halfway mark. The Frenchman was throwing down some fast laps but unfortunately made a mistake and lost some time on the competition. He kept pushing and closed the gap to fifth but ran out of time and ended the night sixth.

The Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team heads back south to Petco Park in San Diego, California, for Round 3 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship on Saturday, January 22.

This article continues below

Jeremy Coker
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing 450 Team Manager
“Oakland was a huge improvement for us. Qualifying 1-2 is amazing, and it shows that we have the speed. Eli winning the heat race is also a big step in the right direction. We will continue to work on our starts, and we will come back stronger next weekend.”

Eli Tomac
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing
“Overall, it was a good day with a really good qualifying result and a great heat race. It was a good track all day, and I enjoyed riding it and racing it. We worked on starts all week, and I was able to put myself in a good position in the heat race and got the win. I was feeling really good going into the main event. I was a little bit farther back on the start but made some good passes early on, and I was doing everything I could to push, but I couldn’t quite get to the podium spot. I made big improvements from the first round, and I know we’ll get there. It’s just a matter of fine-tuning at this point.”

Dylan Ferrandis
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing
“I felt good all day. We had a really good lap time during practice, but we got a really bad start in the heat race and had to fight my way up to fifth. Then in the main event, I got a little better start, but it was still not very good. I had another big fight to come back to the front and gave everything I had to come back to sixth. I think I could’ve got a top-five finish, but I made a mistake and missed a big double on the track, so I lost a lot of time. I closed the gap to fifth and finished on their rear wheel, but it was not enough. We’ll take this; it’s better than last weekend for sure, but it’s not really where we want to be. Step-by-step, we need to move our way up each race.”

Words and pic: Yamaha Racing