Eli Tomac on Saturday dominated the first two legs of the Detroit Supercross and held on for a sixth-place finish in the third to win the triple crown at Ford Field.
He was fast all day. After posting the fastest laps in two qualifying rounds, he said he was “feeling good.”
In the first moto, he raced from 11th to first.
In the second, he led 12 laps for the win.
But in the third moto, he was just good enough.
Tomac started the first moto in 11th as Justin Brayton and Blake Baggett raced in front. By the end of the third lap, he was in ninth, and by the end of the eighth he was in fifth. He passed Ken Roczen for fourth in the 10th lap and overtook Baggett for third place in the 11th. Tomac stalked Chad Reed for three laps before passing him in the 14th of 17 laps, then ran down Brayton for the lead in the 16th lap. Brayton was second and was followed by Reed.
In the second moto, Tomac followed holeshot winner Cooper Webb to the first turn and was third behind Webb and Kawasaki teammate Joey Savatgy after one lap. Tomac passed Savatgy for second in the fifth lap and overtook Webb for the lead in the sixth. From there, it was all Tomac. He stretched out a 6.430-second lead in the 13th lap and crossed the finish line 5.108 seconds ahead of Webb for the win. Savatgy was third.
In the final moto, Baggett won the holeshot and was followed by Savatgy, Chris Blose, Justin Barcia and Webb. Tomac was way back, again in 11th. He went off the track in the third lap and was in 13th place after three laps. He took sixth place in the 13th lap, giving him enough points for the overall lead if he sat pat. He did.
Webb raced to a win and was followed by Baggett and Barcia.
Tomac’s sixth-place finish gave him the overall triple crown victory with eight points (two firsts and a sixth). Webb finished second with nine points (6-2-1), and Reed was third with 15 (3-5-7).
With Saturday’s victory, Tomac remained in fourth place overall, but only a point behind Musquin. Webb leads all riders with 173 points and is followed by Roczen with 167, Musquin with 161 and Tomac with 160.
Next Saturday, the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series heads to Atlanta for the ninth of 17 races.
