Tomac and Savatgy talk about a disappointing East Rutherford supercross

Monster Energy Kawasaki rider Eli Tomac came into East Rutherford poised and ready to defend his championship lead.

As the 450SX Main Event kicked off, Tomac came around Turn 1 in fourth place, with Josh Grant outside the top-10. Tomac wasted no time racing his KX™450F into the lead on Lap 2. Shortly after taking over the lead, Tomac would go down in a corner and remount in 15th. From there, Tomac began passing his way through the competition as best he could on a very technical racetrack. When the checkers flew, Tomac crossed the line in eighth place with teammate Grant ahead in seventh. Tomac now sits in second place in the overall standings, nine points down from the leader.

“Today was tough,” said Grant. “Tonight’s track was very technical and didn’t really have flow to it. We did our best as a team to find a setting that worked best for me and ran it. I made a lot of good passes and finished strong. I’m looking forward to Vegas.”

“At this point we’ve got nothing to lose,” said Tomac, “So we’ll go into Vegas looking to get another win. Anything can happen and all we can do is stay positive.”

After wrapping up the 250SX West Region Championship last weekend, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki was beaming with confidence. After winning Heat Race 1, Adam Cianciarulo captured the 250SX Main Event holeshot on his KX™250F. Teammate and East Region points leader, Joey Savatgy quickly made the move past Cianciarulo for the lead and the two Kawasaki’s would lead the field around MetLife Stadium. Unfortunately, on Lap 14 Savatgy made a mistake in the rhythm section and went down. After remounting in sixth place, Savatgy rode strong and crossed the finish line in third place, while Cianciarulo faded back to fifth place.

Following the race, Savatgy was penalized five positions for re-entering the track in the wrong position following his crash. The penalty moved him down to eighth in the official results and Savatgy now is one point out of the championship lead with one race remaining.

“I felt good going into the main, ” said Savatgy. “I thought I could win before the track reached up and took me down. I don’t think I re-entered in the wrong place but after the officials’ decision I know what I have to do in Las Vegas.”

“Tonight was a step forward,” said Cianciarulo. “Managed to get great starts tonight but just couldn’t put it all together to finish on the box. Lots of positives to take away from tonight.”

Words: Kawasaki