WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 54 ISSUE 13 APRIL 4, 2017 P69
lap, I understand—and I think we
all would—but it's just that he's a
lapper. It's just unfortunate, but
what do you do?"
Dungey resumed chasing
Tomac, but by then he trailed
his championship challenger by
4.8 seconds, and that was it. He
wasn't going to be able to reel
Tomac back in.
"Honestly, I don't know where
it's coming from," Dungey said.
"I guess I don't know what I did
wrong. I have a lot of respect for
Chad. He's been in the sport a
long time. I'm not going to come
in here and start pushing him
around or whatnot. I'm going
to race the guy clean, and he
would, too. I guess I don't know
where this attitude and every-
thing's coming from. Just, like, in
the heat race, we were side-by-
side going into the whoops the
very first lap, and he sees me
and starts trying to come over
on me and take my front wheel
out, and we're in the whoops!
What can I do?! And then you try
to make a pass on him, and he
the first swing, forcing Dungey
wide after the whoops on lap
one to take the lead.
Initially, Dungey fell a couple
of seconds behind, but then he
began gaining on Tomac. On lap
15 of an eventual 25, Dungey sat
less than two seconds behind
Tomac, but then he found Mon-
ster Energy/Yamalube/Chapar-
ral Yamaha's Chad Reed again.
Although he was running 16th at
the time, Reed held Dungey be-
hind him for three full laps, and
when Reed finally let Dungey by,
he appeared to rev his bike at
Dungey in anger.
"Leading up to that, we were
catching Eli and putting in some
good laps; I was happy with it,"
Dungey said. "I think everybody
saw it: Eli gets around quick and
easy, and then three laps go by
and he [Reed] is in the groove—
in the line—and it's hard to pass,
so it's almost like if you're a
lapper, you've got to move over.
I just don't know why he's got
to get involved with me and Eli's
position. If he was on the same
did exactly what he needed to
do, grabbing his first holeshot in
what seems like a very long time
to start the main event, but for
the first time in the recent run of
races, Tomac immediately joined
him up front, giving the crowd
exactly the race they were hop-
ing for—a Tomac/Dungey head-
to-head. The stage was set for
the champion and the challenger
to get after it, and Tomac took
450SX St. Louis Highlights
