Image: Octopi Media.

Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Eli Tomac made major improvements at round two of Monster Energy Supercross in Oakland, made evident with P4 on the night after qualifying quickest and winning his heat.

Tomac made his Yamaha debut at Anaheim 1, later identifying starts and whoops as weaker points after claiming sixth at the opener.

Round two not only saw a better finishing position for the former 450SX champion, but a closer gap to the leader at the end of the race – a 20.320s deficit at Anaheim reduced to 9.910s at Oakland.

“Overall, it was a good day with a really good qualifying result and a great heat race,” Tomac explained. “It was a good track all day and I enjoyed riding it and racing it.

“We worked on starts all week and I was able to put myself in a good position in the heat race and got the win. I was feeling really good going into the main event.

“I was a little bit farther back on the start, but made some good passes early on, and I was doing everything I could to push, but I couldn’t quite get to the podium spot. I made big improvements from the first round and I know we’ll get there. It’s just a matter of fine-tuning at this point.”

While Tomac has not been able to land a podium in the opening two races, he has been one of the more consistent riders, currently sixth in the standings, six points outside Justin Barcia (TLD Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing), who holds the red plate as the series heads to San Diego.