SUPERCROSS
MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES
ROUND 9 / MARCH 5, 2016
DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA / DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
P58
Ever since he went down
while leading (and to that point
undefeated on the outdoor sea-
son) at the Lakewood National
last year in Colorado, Monster
Energy Kawasaki's Eli Tomac
has been recovering. He had
surgeries on both shoulders,
and during the entire first part of
this supercross series, Tomac
has been struggling. And so has
his team. However, the struggle
was probably expected.
"This is huge," Tomac said.
"Even though this event is so
unique as part of our supercross
series, this is the spirit the team
needed to lift us up. We've been
down in the dumps a little bit
because the expectations were
high at the beginning of the
season. It's been tough. That
time, I was able to get out there
early with the start and just lay
it down, and I was having fun
on the motorcycle; that's what
counts, and it paid off in that
main event."
Even through the first part
of the 2016 Monster Energy/
AMA Supercross Series, Tomac
was still working on getting his
shoulders stronger,
and working on getting
his fitness stronger to
match. This plays havoc
on the team, because
at the level that he's
racing at, the racers are
on a razor's edge. Their
chassis and engine set-
tings only really "work"
when they're riding at
100-percent.
During the early part
of the series, his team
acknowledged that they
were playing a guess-
ing game from week to
week, and it went like
this: 1) We predict he'll
be this much stronger,
which means we should
start here this weekend
with his suspension
settings. 2) See how
Tomac likes the set-
tings. 3) Attempt to
adjust accordingly. 4)
Learn from it and move
on to the next week. The team
has been chasing their tail as
Tomac gets stronger and fitter,
but if the Daytona Supercross is
any indication, Tomac is at mini-
mum very close to 100 percent
now.
Then again, with how domi-
nant he was during the early part
of the 2015 AMA National MX
Series, maybe he just beat the
champ Ryan Dungey heads-up
because Daytona is as close to
an outdoor track as the racers
have seen this year.
Only time will tell. CN
Tomac celebrates his long-awaited win with the Daytona fans.
