It wasn’t just the season-worst seventh-place finish. Eli Tomac’s Oakland Supercross was the culmination of a month of growing pains, as Eli tried to get back into form after two serious shoulder surgeries while adjusting to a new bike and team. Through his own talents and those of this very experienced team, they patched together some solid results. He went fo-fo-fo at the first three, peppered with a heat race win at Anaheim 1 and a near-podium at Anaheim 2. He won another heat in Oakland, but when he started mid-pack in the main event, he didn’t rip to the front like usual. Something was wrong. It was time to make some changes.
Late that night in Oakland, there was still activity in the Monster Energy Kawasaki pits. Normally everyone would have packed up and left, but all the team heavies, along with Tomac and his dad John, were standing in a circle, serious faces on all, trying to figure out what was next. Then came three long days at the test track last week to try to find the solution.
“I think, when Eli came back, he was still getting the strength back in his shoulders, so the bike was soft to make it easier on his upper body,” explained Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Manager Bruce Stjenstrom to us this past weekend. “It could work sometimes, but at Oakland he got that bad start in the main event, by then the track was rough and he couldn’t take the lines he wanted.”
It seems like an easy fix—just stiffen everything—but this is where the new rider/team combo really gets a test. Can they all pull in the same direction? Can the rider communicate what he wants? Can the team deliver? We’ve seen quite a few high-profile rider/brand switches lately and the script is often similar. The first few races often go well and everyone seems happy. It’s the chase for the next level that sends things sideways.
You could argue that Ken Roczen’s best performances with Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s/RCH Suzuki were his first ones, when he went 1-2-1 at last years first three races. Six months later, the bike and suspension combo wasn’t working for Kenny, and drama ensued. When we talked to Kenny at the end of last summer, during the midst of some trouble stirred up by his dad in a German magazine interview, he explained it.
“When we started in supercross, we found a pretty good base setting,” Kenny explained last August. “We always tried to improve here and there, but we didn’t really make a step forward.”
When Ryan Dungey switched to a KTM in 2012, he won the second race of that season. But the ensuing years, and months, were filled with set-up questions, and Ryan didn’t get it solved until an all-new motorcycle showed up last year.
So last week was pivotal for Tomac and his new team. Based on his improvement on Saturday, they went the right way.
“The first thing is I just had a smooth day,” said Tomac after taking third Saturday night in Glendale. “The past two weeks I’ve been scrambling out of my mind during practice and just not being comfortable, and somehow pulling out a decent heat race, and then going back to floundering in the mains. Today it was just a more consistent day. I kind of rode the same the whole time other than the last eight laps in the main event. But [we made] big improvement during the week and we brought it here and it was way better. I’m happy for sure. The podium was nice.”
Tomac downplayed the bike changes coinciding with his own physical strength being on the rise. He feels that changes happen a few rounds in no matter what.
“It’s always a chase at the beginning of the season for settings,” he said. “I made really big changes this week, so now I feel like I’m starting over again, but I’m starting in a way better spot, so it’s going to be all good from here.”
Last season was a rough one for Kawasaki, as the brand didn’t win a title in either the 250 or 450 class for the first time since 1984. The Tomac signing is a huge one, but Stjenstrom and the team aren’t getting desperate or greedy. It’s tantalizing to have someone of Tomac’s talent and potential, the team is willing to be patient.
“The last thing you want is the rider to try something he’s not ready to do and crash,” says Stjenstrom. “We’ve told him, we tell all the riders, you’re not going to learn a single thing while you’re sitting on the sideline.”
Considering the ups and downs of Tomac’s last few seasons, the consistent start to the year is really all anyone should ask for. Now they’ve completed a big test, and finally made the podium. Saturday’s third-place isn’t the ultimate goal, but it’s a significant achievement. It’s the first time they’ve had a problem, and they fixed it.
“[We’re working on] just getting comfortable with the motorcycle, and trying to have [the] same feeling from the practice track to the race,” said Tomac. “That’s huge and I wasn’t having that in past weeks. Now I am, so that’s exciting.”
