Turns out, GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac likes this winning thing and he plans on doing more of it this coming weekend in Phoenix.
“I feel great,” Tomac said in a team release. “I came out of Anaheim healthy and I was really pleased with how I rode there. It’s really nice to start with a win because it lets you know that you’re where you want to be. I think the races I did in the off-season helped keep me in the groove.”
Last week’s win at the opening round of the AMA Supercross Series in Anaheim was by far Tomac’s best finish in the season opener, a round that had bedeviled the defending 250SX West champ in the past two years.
Now with any opening night jitters out of the way, the Cortez, Colorado-based Tomac is rolling into Arizona with a lot of momentum.
“Phoenix is another one of the races in the Southwest, so it’s very comfortable for me,” he said. “I didn’t get on the podium there last year [finishing fourth] so I need to step it up this time through. If I stick with the same game plan we should have a good chance. I’m ready to win another one for GEICO Honda.”
GEICO Honda’s third West Coast rider, Zach Osborne, battled his way to a seventh-place finish in the opener following a bad start to the 250SX main event.
“Anaheim was a little bit of a bummer, coming in seventh and all, but I feel like a weight has been lifted because I made it through the first race healthy and now we’re back into a regular rhythm,” Osborne said. “I feel like I’ll be a step ahead of where I was at A1 when we get to Phoenix. The jitters will be gone and my hunger will be up.”
Osborne said he knows Saturday is an opportunity to shrug off last week’s disappointment and move up through the standings.
“The attack is the same,” he said. “My start in the Main is what got me so I’ll work on those every chance I get. It’s crazy because I’ve done so many starts this winter and it was something I thought would be a strength for me and then I come out and have a bad one.
“Hopefully, it was just that one and the rest will be strong. It’s a very important part of the race.”
