Image: Octopi Media.

A moto two victory at Hangtown confirms Eli Tomac is ready to fight for the 2022 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, with improvements made to the setup of his bike allowing him to deliver a stronger result.

It is understood that Tomac’s preparation for outdoors was limited as he took time to recover from an MCL ligament tear after securing this year’s 450SX title at Denver.

As result, the setting on the bike continues to improve with each outing in his first 450MX campaign on the Yamaha, with the setup improved heading into Hangtown and again between the motos at round two. This was reflected in Tomac’s 4-1 scorecard.

“It was a much improved weekend for us,” said Tomac. “We did a lot of good work leading into this race, and it showed. In the first moto, I think I was around fourth or fifth on the start and kind of just stayed there and rode okay – I was missing a few lines and a few jumps. There were some technical jumps out there, and there was one double that I was missing, so I felt like that kept me away from the leaders.

“In the second moto, I had the better race lines and just rode better on those technical jumps. We made a couple of little changes between the moto to get the bike balanced, so I was able to just go forward that time. I had a lot of fun riding. It was a really great racetrack. This was one of the better Hangtown tracks that I think we’ve had for just the way the dirt was. It was a good weekend for us.”

Tomac’s results landed him third overall at Hangtown, just two points shy of Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jason Anderson. Combined with 7-4 results during round one at Fox Raceway, Tomac is fourth in 450MX standings, 19 points adrift of Chase Sexton (Team Honda HRC) in the lead.

Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing 450 team manager Jeremy Coker added: “It was a really good day overall. Eli had a good first moto, finishing fourth. We made some bike changes and he went out and showed what he was truly capable of in that second moto. He really put on a show and won the moto and was third overall.”