Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 8, 2013 P47 PIONSHIP number-one plate, the defending West champ, who said he spent much of the off-season riding 450s, looked confident and strong, putting his GEICO Honda into the lead and keeping it there, pulling a second or two a lap on the field the first few go-arounds. He was never seriously challenged the rest of the way but he could never let his guard down. "This race was one of the ones I really wanted to get the 'W' on for the season," Tomac said. "I felt great in practice, went 1-1 in the timed qualifying then in the heat race it wasn't what I really wanted, but it got me fired up for the main where I got a better start and rode a clean 15 after that." Riding a solid second place but at the end of the day, I'm actually really happy, really happy. But we'll come back, we'll get the knee evaluated later this week and we'll go from there." If the injury isn't serious and he can continue to race, he most likely kept his title hopes alive by gritting his teeth and racing. "This was one of those things, it was a championship moment right here. Honestly, the day went perfect, we were fast in practice, we made two clicker changes on the bike, and I was sitting on the gate on the main event, so we knew our bike worked good - I had a motorcycle that could've won the race easily, I should've won the race easily if I was healthy. My confidence is still there. I'm actually more confident leaving this weekend than I was the entire race and ready to attack if Tomac faltered was former MX2 World Champion Ken Roczen on the Red Bull KTM. The German star just missed getting taken out in the Nelson crash before settling into second. "I was right next to the firstturn accident; I think I got a little lucky," he said. "I want to win the championship," he added. "It definitely takes consistency and, of course, winning races. Eli is at his peak right now, so I think it's going to be about us. There're a lot of other good guys out there, but in the end, it's all about being on the podium every single weekend and sometimes I don't think it will be enough, you have coming into it, so - we'll be good. At least I didn't hit the deck [laughs]." So what now? "I just need to get [the knee] checked out and see what's going on in there, make sure we're doing the right thing. I knew I had to try. We just need to make sure we're not damaging anything and all that. If not, we'll go after the championship. I don't want to be in a situation where I lose both [Supercross and outdoor] titles, but we'll make the to fight for that win." J-Star KTM's Malcolm Stewart, TLD/Lucas Oil Honda's Cole Seely, Rockstar Energy Racing's Jason Anderson all got off to fast starts and battled for the final spot on the podium. Stewart was flying on his KTM and held third for six laps before both Seely and Anderson were able to get by him. "I was really close to that first turn pile up," said Seely "I had Jesse's head in my sites looking down my front fender, so I made a little swerve right before I hit his head. Luckily I didn't clip him or knock him out or anything." Seely, who hadn't raced since his big crash at the Salt Lake Supercross last year, was happy right choices. "It's hard, the preparations coming into this year have been phenomenal and it's going to be hard to bow down without at least giving it a fight. I think we did that - I think we're right there."

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