Clean sweep for Tomac
By Team TMX on 11th Jul 16
After a three-year hiatus, the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship headed back to the sandbox of Southwick, Massachusetts. For four decades Southwick held a special place in American motocross with its sand based track producing great races throughout the years.
Race day began with Monster Energy Kawasaki rider Eli Tomac qualifying second. When the gate dropped for Moto 1 and the 40 riders came barreling through the sand into the first turn, Tomac sat 10th. The Colorado native, wasted no time powering his KX450F through the field and by the end of Lap-1 had passed his way into the top five.
Within another two laps he had reeled in the leader and began applying pressure for the lead. By half-way, he had taken over the lead and checked out. Within one lap, Tomac had pulled a six and half second lead, by the next lap, it was up to a ten and half second lead, and when the checkers finally flew, the No. 3 machine had pulled a 20+ second gap on second place to win his first moto of the season.
Teammate Tyler Bowers had a slow start to the day having to qualify through the 450 consolation race. As a result, Bowers had a poor gate pick for Moto one and was unfortunately caught up in a first turn pile up. Bowers rode strong for 35 minutes and passed nearly half of the field to finish 17th.
In Moto 2, Tomac came charging around Turn-1 inside the top-5 and by the end of the lap he had worked his way into second place. Once again, the two riders atop the points would battle through the sugary sand of "The Wick.” For 15 minutes the gap between the two rarely exceeded one second, however, Tomac had finally eaten enough roost and made a pass for the lead by railing an outside berm, the long way around. A tip-over with five laps remaining pushed Tomac back into second, but it wouldn't last long as he would bounce back and re-pass for the lead two corners later. Tomac went 1-1 for his first overall of the season while teammate Bowers went 17-14 for 15th overall.
