Newly-crowned AMA Pro Motocross champion Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Kawasaki) has admitted that Europe’s tops athletes Antonio Cairoli (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and teammate Jeffrey Herlings were setting a ‘hot pace’ at last weekend’s US grand prix of the 2017 FIM MXGP World Championship.

Tomac initially struggled at the Jacksonville circuit, finishing over a minute behind the European duo in the qualification heat, although he bounced back on Sunday’s race day to collect a 1-3 scorecard for second overall.

“Yesterday we just weren’t on the pace.” Tomace reflected. “But the two-day format worked in my favour to have time to feel comfortable with my settings. The sandy base threw us at first, but we found some solutions this morning.

“[The] warm-up went well and then I knew that with a good start I could run with them. The first moto I got out front early, put in some fast laps and had a good rhythm.

“I got to third fairly quickly in race two, but those two guys out front were setting a hot pace and I lost contact – there were a couple of sections where they were doing things I just didn’t feel confident with, so third was all I had in me that race.”

After a gruelling year of supercross and motocross racing, plus the weekend’s MXGP, Tomac elected to not be available for Team USA selection for the prestigious Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations next month in favour of extending his off-season. His next appearance of 2017 will be the Monster Energy Cup on 14 October.