Eli Tomac of Cortez returned to his home state of Colorado on Saturday and ran away with the 450 AMA Supercross before a roaring crowd at Denver’s Broncos Stadium at Mile High.
The victory, his second consecutive win, gave his sole ownership of second place in the standings and narrowed Cooper Webb’s lead to 18 points with two races to go in the series.
He won on a track that had made passing difficult all day.
Lining up in the No. 4 position at the starting gate, Tomac was fifth after one lap, behind Marvin Musquin, Joey Savatgy, Justin Bogle and Ryan Breece.
Tomac passed Bogle for third place in the second lap, and passed teammate Savatgy for second in the fourth lap. Series-leading Webb was fifth.
After four laps, Musquin, who had picked up a big early lead, was only 2 seconds ahead.
In the fifth lap, Tomac ran his fastest lap of the race – 43.207 seconds – to pressure Musquin, and in the sixth, overtook him for the lead with a bold pass in the whoops.
By the ninth lap, he was 4.27 seconds ahead of Musquin, and by the 18th lap, he was 7.18 seconds ahead.
However, Webb wasn’t done racing. He overcame Musquin in the 23rd lap and made a brief move toward the front in the 25th of 28 laps. But Tomac, who had been fast all day, finished 7.77 seconds ahead.
Musquin finished third, and Bogle and Savatgy rounded out the Top 5.
Earlier Saturday, Tomac was fastest in qualifying rounds and was the runner-up in his heat.
Tomac set the pace after two practice runs with a best lap of 42.905 seconds, about .3 second faster than Musquin’s 43.207 seconds. Savatgy was third.
In his heat, he broke fourth to the first turn, and moved into third past Webb in the fifth lap. He then got by Savatgy in the seventh lap for second, and after challenging Cole Seely for the lead, finished 2 seconds behind him.
As the season winds down, Tomac holds a five-point lead over Musquin, who sits comfortably in third place. Ken Roczen is a distant fourth, 31 points behind Tomac.
After the Easter break, the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series goes to East Rutherford, New Jersey, on April 27, then concludes in Las Vegas on May 4.