East Rutherford, NJ (April 25, 2015) – Eli Tomac claimed his third win of the season, the GEICO Honda rider holding off a late charge by newly crowned champ Ryan Dungey to get the job done.
After getting off to a mediocre start, which put him in fifth at the end of lap one, Tomac worked his way into second by lap three, where he dogged early leader Cole Seely on the Team Honda HRC Honda for 11 laps before finally making a move for the lead on lap 14. From there, Tomac stretched his lead to 12 seconds over Dungey at the finish.
“The track really broke down out there,” said Tomac. “I just tried to be as consistent as I could and keep it on two wheels, and I started to close in on Seely. He made a couple mistakes that allowed me to get on his rear fender and I just pulled the trigger in the whoops. One I got out front I was able to just get through lappers and bring it home.”
Dungey also got by Seely, doing so on lap 15 before pulling about a 12 second lead on the Honda rider before the finish.
“The start wasn’t the greatest, and I had a couple close calls out there,” said Dungey. “The track got really nasty and with about five laps to go after passing Seely I just settled in. We’re moving forward to the next race happy. We got one more to go; we’ll give it all we got and hope for the best.”
Seely held on to take the final podium spot with Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett and Andrew Short, who broke his knee cap on the final lap when Soaring Eagle/RCH/Suzuki’s Broc Tickle hit Short and his BTO Sports KTM, rounding out the top five.
Tickle held on for sixth, with Discount Tire’s TwoTwo Motorsports Kawasaki’s Josh Grant grabbing seventh after skipping the second practice due to feeling sick.
Team Chiz’s Kyle Chisholm (Kaw), Rockstar Energy Factory Husqvarna Racing’s Jason Anderson, and N-Fab/AutoTrader.com/Toyota/JGR/Yamaha’s Weston Peick, rounded out the top 10.
450SX Class Results
1. Eli Tomac (Hon)
2. Ryan Dungey (KTM)
3. Cole Seely (Hon)
4. Blake Baggett (Suz)
5. Andrew Short (KTM)
6. Broc Tickle (Suz)
7. Josh Grant (Kaw)
8. Kyle Chisholm (Kaw)
9. Jason Anderson (Hus)
10. Weston Peick (Yam)
