Eli Tomac of Cortez placed second in the Nashville Supercross and climbed to third place in the series standings after a one-on-one battle to the finish with Jett Lawrence on Saturday.
Tomac, riding for Star Racing Yamaha, led the 450 cc race for 10 laps before giving way to the series-leading rider from Honda.
Tomac’s strong showing and Chase Sexton’s race-ending crash bumped Tomac up into third place overall in the series standings. Sexton dropped to fourth.
During qualifying rounds Saturday, Tomac again chased Jett Lawrence to the finish line.
In Heat 2, Tomac was out of the gate first, but Jett Lawrence claimed the hole shot in the first turn, with Webb close behind. The three battled the whole race, but Yamaha teammates Webb and Tomac could not overtake him. Tomac finished third behind Webb.
In Heat 1, Justin Cooper, Sexton, Hunter Lawrence and Ken Roczen went head to head at the start, but Roczen claimed the hole shot.
Roczen’s hold on the lead was short-lived, however, as Cooper passed him before he could take a commanding lead. Later on in the race, Roczen’s bike stalled, putting him out of the top three for heat one.
At the one-minute mark, Adam Cianciarulo was in first place, Hunter Lawrence in second and Sexton in third, but Hunter Lawrence surged in the last lap to claim the win. Cianciarulo finished second, Sexton third, Cooper fourth and Roczen fifth.
In the 450SX main event, Tomac claimed the hole shot, with Jett Lawrence in second and Webb in third. Jett almost crashed, allowing Roczen to sneak past him and into second place, right behind Tomac.
Around the 16-minute mark, Sexton went down hard in the whoops section, and briefly lay on the track before limping off and forfeiting the race.
Not long after, Roczen’s shocks broke as he went over the whoops, and causing him to crash after losing control of his smoking bike mid-jump. He too did not finish the race.
Tomac held the lead until he and Jett Lawrence came upon two riders who had crashed, leaving Tomac with no choice but to commit to his line on the outside, while Jett saw his chance and sped past Tomac on the inside.
Jett Lawrence nearly went over the handlebars, but managed to stay in position.
The commentators noted the rough conditions of the track after both Sexton and Roczen crashed and Jett Lawrence avoided a crash.
“The margin of error on this track is ridiculously thin,” they said.
With two minutes left in the race, Tomac was seven seconds behind Jett Lawrence and Webb was a distant third.
Jett won the main event, with Tomac in second. Webb finished in third, barely holding off Justin Anderson.
With Tomac’s second-place showing and Sexton’s crash, Tomac moved to third place in the overall point standings behind Jett Lawrence and Webb, with 253 points.
Jett Lawrence leads with 286 points, and Webb has 281.
Three races remain in Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship series. Racers go to Philadelphia on Saturday, then head west to Denver on May 4 and Salt Lake City on May 11.
| 1. Jett Lawrence | Honda | 286 |
| 2. Cooper Webb | Yamaha | 281 |
| 3. Eli Tomac | Yamaha | 253 |
| 4. Chase Sexton | KTM | 246 |
| 5. Jason Anderson | Kawasaki | 224 |
