Eli Tomac of Cortez bounced back from his first moto loss of the season Saturday to win a fourth straight title, beating back a challenge from rival Marvin Musquin at High Point Raceway.
Musquin overtook Tomac to win the first race in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, but Tomac won a tense and tight second race for the overall win.
Tomac sits atop the series standings with a 4-0 record overall and a 7-1 record in motos.
In the first moto, Tomac grabbed the lead at a chaotic first turn that saw Ken Roczen, Blake Baggett, Phil Nicoletti and Weston Peick all go down in a tangled mess.
Racing clear of the chaos, Tomac quickly stretched out a 2.58-second lead over Justin Barcia by the end of Lap 1, and a 4.27-second lead by the end of Lap 4.
Meanwhile, Musquin won the battle with Barcia for second during Lap 5 and began to stalk Tomac for the lead.
Coming from 5.15 seconds back, Musquin cut Tomac’s lead to less than a second in Lap 11, and soon was all over Tomac’s back tire. In Lap 12, with about 6 minutes to race, Musquin took an outside line to race Tomac side by side, then passed him as he briefly slowed in a rutted curve. Tomac made a late challenge but settled for second, 5.42 seconds behind at the finish.
Barcia was third, followed by Justin Hill in his debut 450MX race, and Blake Baggett.
Tomac also got a good start in the second moto and quickly dueled Roczen in a back-and-forth race for the lead. About three minutes into the race, Roczen went off the track and gave the lead to Tomac in Lap 2. Musquin got past Roczen in Lap 6 and again challenged Tomac as the two pulled away from the pack and raced for the High Point title, often racing side by side through a crowd of lapped riders. But Musquin couldn’t find a passing lane, and Tomac, leading by just .350 second in Lap 17, sprinted to the finish in the final lap for a 1.75-second victory.
Barcia, Roczen and Hill rounded out the Top 5.
In the two races combined, Tomac led 28 of the 36 laps, compared with Musquin’s seven. Both scored 47 points for the day’s racing, but the tiebreaker and title went to Tomac because he won the second moto.
Earlier Saturday, Baggett was fastest in qualifying rounds, posting a 1 minute, 55.307-second lap. Tomac was second, at 1:56.393, followed by Musquin, Barcia and Roczen.
Up next in the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross series is the fifth of 12 races, at the Tennessee National in Blountville on June 23.
