Eli Tomac has got the momentum right now. It’s now two wins in a row for the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider who won his fourth race of the season in Tampa out of eight events – and has more wins than anyone else in the series.
But the DNF’s have wrecked Tomac’s title hopes leaving Eli having to focus simply on race wins and enjoying the experience rather than have any title pressure.
Doug Turney caught up with a happy and relaxed Tomac, who appears to have put the crashes behind him.
For a couple of laps you were right behind Marvin, were you looking at his lines or trying to set him up for a pass?
I was in a situation where I trying to figure out where to pass him. luckily in the main I was able to get in that groove to where I was able to do that. A lot of times you are right on the edge and you can’t think about that stuff but tonight I was able to, I felt awesome on the bike. The bike was working great in the main and I was able to sneak down the inside, made the same pass twice and the second time it stuck. It’s fun when you get to race your dirtbike like that.
When you come up on someone like that, do you prefer to try and get around them as fast you can or watch them for a couple of laps and know where they are going?
Every situation is different, tonight to be in the situation, I knew I had more in the tank towards the end, I was feeling great.
How about the start there, it was more opened up compared to last week, but it looked pretty slick.
It was slick, at least it was a sweeping 180 so it wasn’t too dangerous, like you said the 90 degress turn into something crazy and chaos, it pinches out guys.The outside played out really well tonight even thought I didn’t really end up over there, the inside didn’t really work to the main but that’s when it counted and I was able to do it there.
As far as the sand, as the night went on it looked like you guys were launching it even more, was it getting getting down to the hard pack underneath?
It had that base and couple of guys were doing it different, I know Anderson was doing a wheel-tap and staying more flat, I was getting more in the pocket of the double and then launching out for the triple, that set me up for a good rhythm to double out of the sand too so it turned into a pretty good part of the track to make up time.
You have had some good dominating wins, but those DNF’s are hurting in the championship, is the goal now to just go out and dominate with the wins?
That’s all I can do. I am so far out of it. It’s part of it so all I can do is go win races. We are out here winning so I am having a goo time right now, you have to look past the crashes, they are just part of it.
Do you think training in Colorado in the elevation helps at all?
It’s just a bit different. You have to find out works better for you. Maybe Florida works for one guy I still like my home base so I am just staying there. This year we have Jeremy Martin at our place so it’s good to have a guy there pushing.
Interview and pic: Eli Tomac
