Cycle News

Cycle News Issue 41 October 16

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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P130 CN III EMPIRE OF DIRT BY STEVE COX A t the end of the 2017 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series, you probably recall Red Bull KTM's Marvin Musquin moving over for his teammate Ryan Dungey to secure Dungey three more points toward that year's 450SX title, which Dungey eventually won. You might also recall that Monster Energy Kawasaki's Eli Tomac had a terrible day that day, finishing eighth behind his teammate Josh Grant, and that Tomac was very vocal a week later about what he thought about team tactics like that. "If the championship does go down to those three points, that's a bummer for everyone," Tomac said at the Las Vegas press conference a week later. "But, hey, if you want to take that home and sleep on that at night, knowing that someone pulled over for you, then it is what it is..." At first glance, it might seem hypocritical for Tomac to benefit now from his new teammate Joey Savatgy pulling over for him in the final main event at this past weekend's Monster Energy Cup, but I'm here to explain why the 2017 KTM team tactics that Tomac denounced are not the same as the 2018 Monster Energy Cup team tactics that he benefited from. 1: The Red Bull KTM team must have had a plan in place prior to the event in 2017, which was evident by the somewhat- cryptic pit-board message that Musquin's mechanic showed to Musquin late in the race. That message simply said, "Ryan." On the other hand, it's highly unlikely that the Monster En- ergy Kawasaki team would've discussed having Savatgy pull over for Tomac in the final main event of the night in order for Tomac to take home a million dollars this past Saturday night. Tomac had dominated the first two main events, and Savatgy went 5-6, so even if Tomac or his team would've supported "TEAM TACTICS"

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