Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Eli Tomac took home a runner-up finish in challenging conditions at last night’s third outing at the Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. His fourth-consecutive podium helped extend his lead in the highly competitive Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX Championship. Dylan Ferrandis overcame adversity from a big crash in his heat race to win his LCQ and salvage points with a sixth-place result.
Tomac had another good qualifying effort, coming just shy of fastest qualifier honors. He finished third in his heat race, and then got a good start in the main event and quickly made his way to second. On the heels of his championship rival, the duo separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Tomac made a move to the front, but the competition countered. He kept pushing but lost a little time with a mistake in the whoops and went on to secure the runner-up finish to expand his lead in the championship to 12 points over second.
Ferrandis showed speed straight away, topping the timesheets in the first qualifying session and ultimately qualified fourth. Unfortunately, the evening program got off to a difficult start with a big crash on the run to the first turn after the gate drop and he was unable to finish the heat race. The Frenchman regrouped and won the LCQ to transfer to the main event and then pushed on from a 10th-place start to end the night sixth.
The Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team heads east for Round 7 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship on Saturday, February 19, at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing 450 Team Co-Owner
“It was a great way to end the West Coast swing in Anaheim. Eli continued to display great qualifying speed, starts, and racecraft tonight and was able to extend his points lead. Dylan also had a great comeback from a big crash after the start of his heat race. He was pretty sore but gritted his way to win the LCQ and a sixth-place finish in the main event. We expect to see him back to the podium soon. Also, we would like to congratulate Jeremy (Coker) and his wife on the arrival of their first child.”
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing
“It was another good podium for us. It wasn’t a win, but I fought as hard as I could and tried to take the lead early in the race and made a quick move on Jason (Anderson) for one jump, but he was able to get back right underneath me right away. I was really strong in the whoops the first half of the race, and then I made one mistake and lost a little bit of my edge. That’s where I felt like I lost the ground tonight – the whoops because it was my advantage. At the same time, once I made that mistake, I was like, ‘alright, maybe I need to back it down, too, and just stay consistent.’ It was a solid night on points, and I’m looking forward to going east.”
Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing
“It was another bad night for me. I had a big crash in my heat race and had to go through the LCQ. I was pretty sore, but I fought as hard as I could and finished sixth. It’s really frustrating to have these tough weekends. We’re going to keep working and try to get back on the podium.”
