VOL. 53 ISSUE 29 JULY 26, 2016 P51
BY STEVE COX
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB KOY
P
rior to the Washougal round of
the 2016 Lucas Oil AMA Pro
Motocross Championship,
Eli Tomac had beaten Ken Roczen
just twice this year, at Daytona and
Southwick, two primarily soft and/
or sandy tracks. So the question
was raised: can Tomac beat Roczen
on a hard-packed track? Tomac
proved at Washougal, a track with
a hard base, that he "…is not only
a sand rider" and could win on a, in
his words, "real" track. But not until
getting warmed up first.
It wasn't until about halfway
through the first moto that Tomac
found his stride on the fast and slick
Washougal track, but it was too late
to catch Roczen (though the Kawa-
saki rider was closing in at the end
of the moto). Tomac carried that
momentum into the second moto
and ran off with an impressive moto
win, which translated into an overall
victory.
Alex Martin also scored an im-
pressive win in the 250MX class,
fighting off early-season points
leader Joey Savatgy to win the first
moto and surviving a crazy second
moto to finish second and get the
overall victory.
Rookie Austin Forkner nabbed his
first career pro win with an impres-
sive win in the second moto, his 10-1
giving him second overall on the day
(yes, a 10-1, even he didn't believe it).
An overcast
morning led to a
sunny afternoon
at the scenic
Washougal MX
Park in southern
Washington state.
