Eli Tomac of Cortez raced through a crowd to capture two out of three motos Saturday and win the 450 Supercross in Arlington, Texas.
It was his second consecutive win and his fourth win in eight races in the series, and he widened his overall lead in the standings over Ken Roczen.
And he raced without teammate Adam Cianciarulo, who crashed and broke his collarbone in the first qualifying round earlier Saturday.
Moto 1: No stopping nowPlaying catch-up in scoring in the three-race main event, Tomac trailed overall points leader Jason Anderson, who placed third and second in the first two motos. Tomac was one point back after placing fifth and first.
Tomac didn’t get the start he wanted.
After the gate dropped, Zach Osborne and Anderson went to the front, followed by Blake Baggett and Ken Roczen.
Tomac was sixth.
He moved into fourth in the fourth lap as the top four riders bunched up at the front, a mere 2 seconds separating leader Osborne and Tomac. Anderson went by Osborne for the lead in the eighth lap, and Tomac got by Roczen for third in the 10th.
Trailing Anderson by just over a second and with Osborne in his sights, Tomac began his charge to the front. He passed Osborne in the 11th lap, and, racing side by side with Anderson, took the lead in the 13th lap. Roczen moved into third place.
With three laps to go, Tomac began to pull away and ran the fastest final lap to win by almost four seconds. Roczen passed Anderson for second place in the moto and second place overall. Anderson dropped to third.
Moto 2: To the leadTomac took the lead early in the second of three motos, passing Baggett after the first turn. In Lap 2, he ran a fast lap of 46.248 seconds, then topped it in the fifth lap with a 46.096-second lap as he pulled away from the pack.
Anderson overtook Justin Brayton in the seventh lap and went on to finish second. Brayton crashed in the 11th lap, conceding third place to Justin Hill, and Osborne and Justin Barcia rounded out the top five.
Moto 1: A slow startTomac got off to a slow start, and was 13th after one lap. He picked up two spots in the second lap, then another spot in the sixth lap to move into ninth place. He was in sixth by the end of the 10th lap.
Easing off the throttle in the final seven laps, Tomac finished a distant fifth, 23.960 seconds off the pace, after benefiting from a crash by Justin Brayton. Roczen won the moto, and was followed by Cooper Webb, Anderson and Barcia.
Qualifying roundsTomac was second-fastest in qualifying rounds with a best lap of 46.097 seconds. Hill was first, at 45.958 seconds, and Martin Davalos, Webb and Anderson rounded out the top five.
Because of the triple crown format, there were no qualifying heat races.
Next weekend, Round 9 of the 17-race AMA Supercross series will be in Atlanta.
