Steve Cox | March 11, 2017
2017 Daytona 450cc Supercross Results: Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac is on an absolute tear. In the last seven races in the 2017 Monster Energy/AMA Supercross Series, Tomac has won five races. In the other two, he finished second (terrible start) to champion and points leader Ryan Dungey (Red Bull KTM), and suffered a mechanical issue with his front brake in the other. But at the Daytona Supercross, Tomac was once again unstoppable.
2017 Daytona 450cc Supercross Results
For the main event, the three far-inside gates were occupied by training partners Marvin Musquin (inside), Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson and Dungey. Anderson flinched before the gate fell, which seemed to cause Musquin to go. Musquin went through his starting gate. All of this chaos next to him seemed to cause Dungey to hesitate. All three got bad starts, but the worse of it went to Dungey and Musquin. Dungey rounded lap one in 17th, Musquin in 13th. Anderson was able to sneak his way around the inside of turn one to start inside the top 10.
However, Jeremy Martin – who qualified second during daytime qualifying, but who struggled in his Heat race and Semi (although he did qualify from his Semi) – grabbed the holeshot in his one-off race on Ken Roczen’s vacated factory Honda CRF450R, with Tomac right on his tail. Then came Motoconcepts Honda’s Justin Brayton, Monster Energy/Yamalube Factory Yamaha’s Chad Reed, JGR Suzuki’s Jake Weimer, Anderson, and Honda’s Cole Seely.
On lap four, things went from bad to worse for Musquin, who went down in a corner while battling with Dungey. Musquin ended up finishing a miserable 15th.
Martin led the first 11 laps of the main event, and Tomac seemed to have nothing for him, but Martin – in his 450cc debut – simply got tired. Martin put up a fight when Tomac began to pressure him for the lead, but it wasn’t Tomac’s first 450cc supercross. He shoved Martin wide through the switchbacks, relegating Martin to second. At that point, Martin had almost 20 seconds on Anderson in third, and he decided to play it safe and ride it in.
Tomac went on to win by 17 seconds over Martin in his fantastic 450cc debut. Then came Anderson another nine seconds back.
On the final lap, Dungey caught Seely, and showing what being a champion is all about, Dungey absolutely willed his way past Seely. In the final three turns, the two racers hit at least three times, with Dungey coming out of it with perhaps the hardest-fought fourth-place finish of his career. The pass on the final lap salvaged two more points in the championship for Dungey, who now leads Tomac by 17 points with seven races left to run.
Seely moved into third in the points standings with Musquin’s disastrous race in Daytona. Musquin is now fourth, just in front of Anderson in fifth.
2017 Daytona 450cc Supercross Results
2017 Daytona 450cc Supercross Results
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