Image: Octopi Media.

Eli Tomac has captured his first Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship overall since joining Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha in 2022 after trading 450MX moto wins with Chase Sexton at High Point.

It was a dominant opening 450MX moto for Team Honda HRC’s Sexton as he powered away to a winning margin of 11.652s ahead of Tomac and with Jason Anderson (Monster Energy Kawasaki) third.

Sexton jumped out front from the outset and led by almost 20 seconds in the middle stages, before controlling things from there. Meanwhile, Tomac got the better of Anderson – who made a mistake while in P2 earlier on – for the runner-up result, and Justin Barcia (TLD Red Bull GasGas) put in one of his better rides for the year so far for fourth.

It was the battle for fifth that stole much of the spotlight, with the fast-starting Joey Savatgy (Monster Energy Kawasaki) edging Ryan Dungey (Red Bull KTM) and Ken Roczen (Team Honda HRC) from 11th on lap one – the trio cross the finish in formation following an intense contest.

Christian Craig (Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha), Aaron Plessinger (Red Bull KTM) and Garrett Marchbanks (Muc-Off FXR ClubMX Yamaha) were the top 10, while Tony Cairoli (Red Bull KTM) was a high-profile non-finisher after going down in the early laps and exiting soon afterwards.

Moto two of the 450 class lit up when Dungey scored the holeshot and led the opening lap, before Roczen then moved by for his share at the front. Sexton then briefly took his turn at the head of the pack, but Roczen was able to counter and Tomac soon stormed past all of them at the midway point.

Tomac pulled away to a 3.558s win, which resulted in his first overall since joining Yamaha ahead of Sexton and Roczen, who got by Dungey on the final lap to deny him of a moto and round podium.

Fifth was enough for Anderson to land a podium overall, while the top 10 included Craig, Barcia, Savatgy, Shane McElrath (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) and Marchbanks. Cairoli was again a non-finisher after tweaking his knee in the first outing.

The round podium was topped by Tomac over Sexton and Anderson, with Sexton holding a 13-point buffer in the standings leading into next weekend off and then RedBud on Saturday, 2 July.

Detailed results