Eli Tomac on Saturday night dominated the 450cc Supercross in Glendale, Arizona, winning two of the three races wire to wire and widening his lead in the 2022 championship series.
Tomac, who has been frustrated by his starts throughout his career, immediately went to the front in the first two races at State Farm Stadium and quickly stretched out his leads to easily finish on top.
He capped his two victories with a third-place finish in the final race of Saturday’s triple crown and was the overall winner.
Stewart was the overall runner-up with a third-, second- and fourth-place finishes in the triple crown, and Chase Sexton was third with 11th-, third- and first-place finishes. Jason Anderson and Ken Roczen filled out the top five.
After five races, Tomac leads series with 111 points. Sexton is in second with 100 points, and is followed by Anderson, with 96. Malcolm Stewart is fourth with 93, and Justin Barcia is fifth with 89.
With back-to-back wins at Anaheim 2 last week and Glendale on Saturday, Tomac became the first rider to win two races this season.
As the gate dropped at the start, Tomac took the early lead for the first time this season, and after one lap led Ken Roczen by 0.697 second. Anderson was 3 seconds off the pace in third and was followed by Stewart and Marvin Musquin.
As Tomac lengthened his lead in Lap 3 to nearly 2 seconds, Stewart tucked into third place ahead of Anderson, who continued to challenge from fourth place.
But by the end of the seventh lap, Tomac had the race in hand, with a 3.856-second lead over Roczen.
Anderson passed Stewart in Lap 7, closed the gap to Roczen in Lap 8 and passed him in Lap 10. Stewart also went past the listing Roczen, who dropped to fourth.
Anderson continued his late charge, but it wouldn’t be enough. After 13 laps, Tomac went across the finish line 2.240 seconds ahead for his second win of the season, just a week after winning Anaheim 2.
Stewart was third, and Roczen and Musquin filled out the top five.
Dylan Ferrandis, the fastest qualifier of the day, finished seventh after starting in 12th place after one lap.
Tomac again got of to a quick start and took his second apparent, but unofficial, holeshot of the night. Anderson, runner-up in the first main event, was in second, and was followed by Stewart, Musquin and Sexton.
Anderson, trailing Tomac by 4.722 seconds in Lap 6, crashed and dropped to 18th place in the field of 22 riders. Sexton passed Musquin for third place, but with 4 minutes to go, Tomac was riding alone, 5 seconds ahead of Stewart in Lap 8.
As the front-runners appeared to settle and string out behind Tomac, Ferrandis, who started in eighth place, pursued and passed Roczen in Lap 11, to finish fifth behind Musquin and Sexton.
Tomac broke fourth out of the gate behind Sexton, Stewart and Cooper Webb, but passed Webb for third place in Lap 1.
Midway through the race, Tomac launched his pursuit of the leaders, and passed Stewart for second place in Lap 7, pulling within 4 seconds of leader Sexton.
Anderson, however, launched a charge of his own, and passed Stewart for third place in Lap 8, and slipping past Tomac for second in Lap 9.
Tomac and Anderson continued their drive to the front, reeling off their fastest laps of the race in Lap 11. But as the checkered flag dropped after 13 laps, Sexton finished 2.5 seconds ahead of Anderson for the win. Tomac was third, nearly 7 seconds off the pace.
Stewart and Webb filled out the top five, more than 10 seconds back.
Earlier Saturday, Tomac posted the second-fastest lap during timed practice runs with a best time of 1 minute, 1.301 seconds. Ferrandis, his teammate on Star Racing Yamaha, was fastest, at 1:01.140. Anderson was third, at 1:01.649; Roczen was fourth, at 1:01.842; and Sexton was fifth, at 1:01.863.
Because the race format Saturday at Glendale featured three main events, there were no timed heats. Each of the three races in the 450cc triple crown were 12 minutes long plus one lap.
The Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship series returns to Anaheim, California, on Feb. 12 for the last of three races at Angel Stadium, then heads east to US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Feb. 19 for the seventh of 17 races in the series.
