Tomac: That one was a massive effort
Eli Tomac admitted he felt had had to win at round three at Ironman in order to give him a chance of winning his fourth 450 US National title in row.
Speaking in the press conference the defending champ said: “I felt like my only option to stay in this was to be on the podium and be in front of Zach, he has such a big points lead right now, that was my only goal coming into the weekend, I got to at least win a moto and be in front of Zach – that’s the way it went.”
“I’m in the position where I can’t have anything happen again, right? Plus it’s a shorter series. The only thing I can do now is try to win, Zach was at 40 points, that’s a pretty far fetch but it’s definitely not over yet, we pulled 13 points out of him in one weekend. If I’m going to get it done, you gotta kinda do it now. When you have the number one plate, the last thing you want to do is give it up, that’s been my motivation. I don’t want to give this thing away by any means.”
On his DNF’s at Loretta’s Tomac said he had to move past it: “The double DNF really sucked, luckily the first moto it was on the last lap and I was able to get ninth, I’m trying to look past that now and keep this going. We did do a little bit of testing in California but that was another deal – always searching trying never to settle.”
Commenting on his battle with Barcia, Tomac said it felt more intense and a faster pace than chasing Musquin in the first moto but that he did feel the effects of that effort the next morning!
“Moto one I was just kind of following Marvin and it wasn’t, maybe it was as fast, but it was just different”, explained Eli. “Moto two, when you have that carrot of the overall right there and then Justin was right there with me the whole way. That pace was hot, that was a gnarly pace and we made it all the way to the end without slowing down. That one was a massive effort, I am actually a little bit sore this weekend compared to the mud race. The mud race you can’t go out there and pin it and sprint. but I’m’ like, ‘here’s the nationals now’, waking up on Sunday. That was a fun race, we sure gave it our all.”
On having a two races at Red Bud within four days, Tomac says it’s going to be tough: “It can go either way, it’s going to be tough having a double header outdoor nationals having two days between the two. The second round will be tough on everyone.”
Article: Jonathan McCready
Image: Kawasaki
