Eli Tomac scored his fourth consecutive Monster Energy Supercross race in Round 11 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Tomac took the lead from Justin Barcia with a little less than five minutes on the clock before he bobbled on the last two laps and almost gave Barcia his first win of the season.
“It was shaky the last couple of laps,” Tomac said. “Thankfully I was in control before that.
“The second-to-last lap, I had a big moment in the whoops and on the last lap I missed that entire rhythm section. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m about to throw this thing away’.”
One week after moving into sole possession of fifth on the all-time wins list, Tomac closed to within one victory of fourth-place Chad Reed’s 44. Ricky Carmichael sits third in the standings with 48 Supercross victories, but Tomac needs to run the table for the remainder of the season to catch him.
Making the race even more productive for Tomac, it came after the riders who entered Indy tied for second in the points crashed in separate incidents, dropping Jason Anderson to 51 points out of first and Malcolm Stewart to 53 points behind.
Justin Barcia’s second-place finish coupled with the issues for Anderson and Stewart allowed him to leapfrog them and move into second in the standings. Barcia is currently 48 points out of first
“It was a nice start; felt good,” Barcia told NBC Sports’ Daniel Blair. “It was a very winnable bike. I didn’t get the win tonight, but second is pretty good. I’ll take it. The track was insane.”
Barcia and Anderson got off to a strong start and battled for the lead in the opening minutes. When Anderson made the pass, however, he was not able to shake Barcia and a couple of laps later, the two made contact that sent Anderson to the ground.
“The pass on Jason?,” Barcia said. “I’ll have to watch it, but it’s one of those corners that if you leave it open – I wasn’t going very fast, I checked up and he hit the side of me. It’s a bummer. I don’t want to seen anyone go down.”
The replay revealed that it was Barcia who rode into the side of Anderson. The incident is under review by Supercross.
Coming home third was Marvin Musquin, who scored his second podium of 2022 and his second consecutive top-five.
“I love these conditions,” Musquin said afterward. “I’ve won here four times, twice in 250 and twice in 450.”
Chase Sexton and Cooper Webb rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth respectively.
For Webb, it was an emotional ride after hurting his shoulder and wrist in a massive crash with Sexton last week at Detroit.
Anderson started the season in a tight battle with Tomac, but after multiple incidents with Stewart, he has slowly been losing touch. He could not afford to give Tomac even a perceived advantage and the night got off strong when won his heat. Anderson was leading at the time of the crash, but instead of gaining five points, he lost seven after finishing the night sixth.
Stewart crashed while riding fourth after he jumped short in a rhythm section. He came home eighth.
Not many riders have had the opportunity to pass Jett Lawrence in 2022, but in the middle stages of the 250 East race, that is precisely what Cameron McAdoo accomplished.
McAdoo knew the only way beat Lawrence was to get as good a start as his rival – and at the end of Lap 1, the pair were nose to tail. When Lawrence bobbled ever so slightly in a rhythm section on consecutive laps, McAdoo held his momentum and took the lead for a couple of circuits.
In 2022, Lawrence seemingly won’t be denied, however, and eventually passed McAdoo for a final time in route to a greater than four second margin of victory.
“I got a holeshot finally and didn’t crash in the second turn, which is always lovely,” Lawrence told Daniel Blair. I kind of settled in too early and Cameron, he was riding really good tonight. He had a better pace at the start. We went back and forth that one time and then he got me. And I thought, ‘allright, he’s doing something I’m not,’ so I studied him and found out where I’m a bit better and where I’m not.”
With starts being critical, winning the heat is important. Lawrence had a tough beginning to the night and when he was clipped by another rider in Turn 1, he flipped off his bike like a ragdoll and another rider ran over his arm. He rode back to the front and passed Kyle Chisholm for the lead on the last lap.
McAdoo felt a mixture of pride and disappointment.
“That was confidence-inspiring with better starts tonight,” McAdoo told Will Christien. “I’m a bit bummed on getting passed back, but I can’t look like I lost my dog up here tonight. I’m not going to dwell on it.”
McAdoo has been on the podium in every race this year, but with Lawrence earning four wins to his one, he is slowly losing points to Lawrence. McAdoo trails by 11.
RJ Hampshire and Pierce Brown had a fierce battle for the final spot on the podium, but it came 35 seconds behind Lawrence. Hampshire took the spot for his first podium of 2022.
That Brown was part of the battle was a victory of sorts. He endoed his bike in the heat and had to make his way into the big show through the LCQ.
Rounding out the top five was Mitchell Oldenburg, the final rider on the lead lap.
Hunter Yoder qualified for the first Main event of his career and finished 19th.
