Colorado’s Eli Tomac took the Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450 class overall win in front of about 55,000 screaming fans inside State Farm Stadium at the first Triple Crown race of the season.
Meanwhile, Australian Hunter Lawrence topped the podium in the 250 class.
The unique three-race format combines results to award single-event championship points.
Tomac’s victory made him the season’s first repeat winner in an intensely close title battle. Malcolm Stewart took home second place. It marked his first podium of 2022 and also his career-first Triple Crown podium finish.
Chase Sexton earned third overall in his first 450SX Class Triple Crown event thanks to a win in the final Main Event.
In the Western Regional 250SX Class, Australian Hunter Lawrence took his first win of the season with consistent 2-1-2 finishes inside the first football stadium venue of 2022.
When the 450SX Class dropped the gate on the ninth-ever Triple Crown format race, Tomac shot out of the gate and holeshot the field in race one.
From there he built over a three-second lead that held to the chequered flag.
Germany’s Ken Roczen held second early but had Jason Anderson and Stewart on his tail.
Two minutes into the 12-minute plus one lap race, Stewart pushed past Anderson for third. Further back, round three winner Sexton was in the mix but two tip-overs relegated him to an 11th place finish.
With less than three minutes on the race clock Anderson, then back in third, pushed cleanly past Roczen. Stewart moved around the Honda rider soon after to wrap the top five in race one as Tomac, Anderson, Stewart, Roczen and Frenchman Marvin Musquin.
Tomac repeated his holeshot in 450SX Class Race 2. The Yamaha rider led with Anderson, Cooper Webb, Musquin, and Sexton on his rear fender. In the early laps, Stewart took over third place while defending champion Webb dropped back steadily, eventually finishing in eighth.
Tomac rode perfectly and quickly distanced himself from any pressure for the lead spot.
Just before the race’s midpoint Anderson got slightly off-line on a launch and jumped off the track in a long rhythm section. He twisted his bike’s levers and got it hung up on a trackside buffer.
It dropped Anderson outside of the top ten. Frenchman Dylan Ferrandis was the rider on the move late in the race, reaching fifth by the end, displacing Roczen to sixth.
Anderson climbed back to 12th by the finish.
In the final race of the night, Sexton rocketed out to the holeshot and quickly built a lead just out of reach of the battles behind him.
Stewart sat second with Tomac in third, in a position to take his fifth Triple Crown overall win if things held where they were. Anderson was the rider on the move early, pushing past other racers until he forced a three-rider battle for second place.
With just over five minutes left on the clock, Tomac pushed into second, but Anderson charged past both Stewart and Tomac to take over the spot and set his sights on Sexton, who was 4.2 seconds ahead on the track.
Anderson wasn’t able to track down the Honda rider, costing him a podium finish. It was Anderson’s first Triple Crown event in which he did not leave with podium-position points.
“The win means a lot to me and puts us in a great spot for points position in the championship,” Tomac said.
“My motorcycle was just so good the whole day, especially in the first two mains. My game plan was to go out and really just try to get the first race win and really set the tone for the night. It’s really important with the Olympic scoring that they use for these events. So in my mind, I knew I wanted to go out and win the first one and try to back it up. Obviously, we wanted to get all three, but I didn’t get the holeshot as I did in the others.
“I just felt good and had a good ride tonight in front of the home crowd. I’m not sure how many ended up down here, but we had a lot of people from my hometown, and of course, that makes it special.”
For Stewart, it has been a long hard rode but his first podium was one to savour.
“This is my first-ever podium for a Triple Crown and I’m beyond stoked,” Stewart said.” I can’t thank the whole team enough. We’ve all been grinding and we’re starting to see things pay off and I think this only builds more momentum for everybody.”
Western Regional 250SX Class
The Western Regional 250SX Class racing was equally intense.
Aussie Hunter Lawrence grabbed his first win of the year after landing on the podium at each prior round. He earned the top spot in Glendale through similar consistency with 2-1-2 finishes in each of the 10-minute plus one lap races.
Points leader Christian Craig won races 1 and 3 nearly unchallenged from start to finish, but his second race was a wild one.
After Craig took over the lead on the opening lap, Vince Friese collided with him in the sand section. The impact sent Craig sailing off the track and into the stadium’s field barriers.
Craig’s charge to fourth in that race, salvaging an overall podium finish. Jo Shimoda rounded out the night’s top three with 5-3-3 finishes. It was Shimoda’s first podium finish of the year.
Craig earned two main event wins and executed an inspired comeback to score second overall (1-4-1)
The series heads back into California for Round 6 and Anaheim 3, the last round of the initial West Coast swing.
It will also mark the final Western Regional 250SX Class series event before that class takes a five-week break for the Eastern Regional 250SX Class series to kick off.
Photo courtesy Yamaha USA
Find BikesportNZ.com on FACEBOOK here
450SX Class Results:
1 Eli Tomac, Cortez, Colo., Yamaha
2 Malcolm Stewart, Murrieta, Calif., Husqvarna
3 Chase Sexton, Clermont, Fla., Honda
4 Jason Anderson, Rio Rancho, N.Mex., Kawasaki
5 Ken Roczen, Clermont, Fla., Honda
6 Justin Barcia, Greenville, Fla., GASGAS
7 Marvin Musquin, Corona, Calif., KTM
8 Cooper Webb, Newport, N.C., KTM
9 Dean Wilson, Murrieta, Calif., Husqvarna
10 Shane McElrath, Oakland, Fla., KTM
450SX Class Championship Standings:
1 Eli Tomac, Cortez, Colo., Yamaha (111)
2 Chase Sexton, Clermont, Fla., Honda (100)
3 Jason Anderson, Rio Rancho, N.Mex., Kawasaki (96)
4 Malcolm Stewart, Murrieta, Calif., Husqvarna (93)
5 Justin Barcia, Greenville, Fla., GASGAS (89)
6 Cooper Webb, Newport, N.C., KTM (88)
7 Ken Roczen, Clermont, Fla., Honda (80)
8 Marvin Musquin, Corona, Calif., KTM (80)
9 Dylan Ferrandis, Tallahassee, Fla., Yamaha (75)
10 Aaron Plessinger, Leesburg, Fla., KTM (67)
Western Regional 250SX Class Results:
1 Hunter Lawrence, Wesley Chapel, Fla., Honda
2 Christian Craig, Temecula, Calif., Yamaha
3 Jo Shimoda, Menifee, Calif., Kawasaki
4 Garrett Marchbanks, Coalville, Utah, Yamaha
5 Vince Friese, Menifee, Calif., Honda
6 Jalek Swoll, Clermont, Fla., Husqvarna
7 Nate Thrasher, Livingston, Tenn., Yamaha
8 Carson Brown, Ravensdale, Wash., KTM
9 Michael Mosiman, Minneaola, Fla., GASGAS
10 Robbie Wageman, Newhall, Calif., Yamaha
Western Regional 250SX Class Championship Standings:
1 Christian Craig, Temecula, Calif., Yamaha (122)
2 Hunter Lawrence, Wesley Chapel, Fla., Honda (114)
3 Michael Mosiman, Minneaola, Fla., GASGAS (99)
4 Jo Shimoda, Menifee, Calif., Kawasaki (87)
5 Nate Thrasher, Livingston, Tenn., Yamaha (79)
6 Vince Friese, Menifee, Calif., Honda (76)
7 Robbie Wageman, Newhall, Calif., Yamaha (64)
8 Carson Brown, Ravensdale, Wash., KTM (55)
9 Carson Mumford, Simi Valley, Calif., Suzuki (55)
10 Garrett Marchbanks, Coalville, Utah, Yamaha (54)