Eli Tomac of Cortez a posted a strong finish to the AMA Motocross season after winning the 450 class event Saturday at the Ironman National and adding a victory to his championship season.
The Kawasaki rider clinched the championship last week in at Budds Creek in Maryland, but refused to end the season with an easy ride to the finish line.
After finishing third to Marvin Musquin and Ken Roczen in the first of Saturday’s two motos, Tomac tucked in behind leader Roczen in the second lap of Moto 2 and stuck to him through 10 of 17 laps. He overtook Roczen in the 11th lap and rode to an eight-second victory.
The race for the season’s runner-up title went to Roczen, who finished second to Musquin in Moto 1, but clinched second place after Musquin crashed out of Moto 2 in the first lap. Jason Anderson finished fourth for the year, and Zach Osborne was fifth.
“Even though the title was clinched, it was still a fun day,” Tomac told racerxonline. “The mindset was to attack.”
He added that the race became “chaos” with Musquin’s crash, which allowed Roczen to get to the lead.
“I was able to stay on him and then got by. What a day, and what a year,” Tomac said.
The 2019 AMA Motocross title is Tomac’s third consecutive championship. This year, he finished on the podium at all but one venue and captured 11 of 24 motos. Roczen won six motos, and Musquin won four.
Next up for Tomac is the Oct. 19 start of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross season. Last season, he finished second to Cooper Webb.
The Monster Energy Kawasaki team of Tomac and 250 class rider Adam Cianciarulo has decided not to race in this year’s Motocross of Nations in Holland on Sept. 28-29. This year’s U.S. team will be composed of Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne and Jason Anderson in the 450 class and Yamaha’s Justin Cooper in the 250 class. Tomac led Team USA to a fifth-place finish last year.