But that doesn’t mean we have to see boring races every weekend. Big mistakes have put the likes of Dean Wilson, Cole Seely and Marvin Musquin back in the points standings, but they’re still at the races, still fast, and can make any individual race a good one. That’s the scenario we saw on Saturday night at Anaheim, when Seely, winner of the previous race in this building, got out front early over Tomac.
If not for a small crash, Cole Seely and Eli Tomac might have had the battle we've been waiting for.
Garth Milan photo
The two Honda men definitely have speed, and they proved it with a full-on sprint through the first few laps. Tomac ran two 56s right off the bat and then dipped into the 55s to try to match Seely, who had ripped off three-straight 55-second laps up front. To give you an idea how fast these two were going, Seely’s third lap was a full 1.7 seconds faster than third-place Musquin.
“Both of us were going really fast,” said Tomac. “It was going to be a battle because he [Seely] was going fast. I knew I was going to have to step it up, we were cranking!”
But then Seely threw it away on the fourth lap when he pushed a little too hard into a sweeper, and the rear tire of his Lucas Oil Troy Lee Designs Honda broke loose. “They groomed the start straight for the guys on the outside,” explained Seely. “So they tracked it over. And I actually thought to myself, when I went around that turn on the first lap, I was surprised how much traction that section had. So I guess I got a little too confident with it.”
With that, Tomac took the lead and took off. As for that battle for the lead that we want to see? Maybe next week.
