WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
BY STEVE COX
PHOTOGRAPHY BY HOPPENWORLD.COM
T
he defending 450 Su-
percross Champion is
bleeding points. Red
Bull KTM's Ryan Dungey held
a 27-point lead over Monster
Energy Kawasaki's Eli Tomac
just four races ago. Since then,
Tomac has reeled off four wins in
a row while Dungey has finished
second, fourth, third and third
again, losing 20 points to Tomac
in that short span of races.
This is when a lot of pundits,
and even racers themselves, will
start to say things like, "There's
a lot of racing left." While true,
it becomes less true with every
passing week. This is a dan-
gerous sport, but if Dungey is
going to successfully defend his
title—maybe for the final time, if
indeed he retires at the end of
this year—he can't rely on Tomac
having a string of problems or
having a disastrous race like he's
already had once; he's going
to have to beat Tomac at least
twice in the final five rounds of
the series.
And while the 450SX class is
tightening up week-by-week, the
250SX East just got blown up in
Detroit, where Rockstar Energy
Husqvarna's Zach Osborne suf-
fered a damaged front end in the
first turn, had to pit to change his
wheel, and ended up 18th.
VOL. 54 ISSUE 12 MARCH 21, 2017 P67
There seems to be no stopping Eli
Tomac right now, as he captured his
fourth straight 450SX win.
DOWN
TO
SEVEN!
Eli Tomac narrows the
points gap to just seven with
five rounds still left to run.
