Monster Energy Kawasaki's Eli Tomac swept both motos at the season-opening Red Bull Hangtown Motocross Classic to claim the overall victory.
See highlights HERE
When the gate dropped for Moto 1 Christian Craig, who bumped up to the 450 Class for Lucas Oil Pro Motocross and is riding the injured Ken Roczen’s Honda, claimed the holeshot. Not far behind him were Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin in second and Yamaha’s Cooper Webb in third.
Eli Tomac worked his way up to fourth, then passed Webb for third. Three minutes into the race, Craig went down, setting up a battle for the lead that a lot of fans were hoping to see: Musquin vs. Tomac.
Musquin did his best to take away Tomac’s lines, but on Lap 4, the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider was finally too much to handle. Once he moved into the lead, Tomac checked out. He built up such a large lead that even after falling off the bike with about three minutes left, Tomac was still 10 seconds ahead of Musquin when he remounted.
Tomac ultimately crossed the finish line 15 seconds ahead of Musquin for the victory. It’s reminiscent of his performance at Hangtown two years ago, when he dominated the field in both motos, though his margins of victory were even larger that year.
Moto 2
Marvin Musquin stormed out of the gate in Moto 2 but he was edged out for the holeshot by Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Josh Grant. Meanwhile the other podium finisher from Moto 1, Eli Tomac, was plagued by a poor start and had to come from outside the top ten.
Tomac began to move through the pack until he was in the top three. Around the 13-minute mark, Musquin was all over the back of Grant. When Musquin finally made the pass his gap on Tomac was just under five seconds.
Tomac got around Grant and had cut Musquin’s lead down to nearly nothing. Despite a series of fierce challenges, Musquin successfully kept himself in front of Tomac for awhile, although the two nearly made contact going through the halfpipe.
With under four minutes to go, Tomac made his most aggressive challenge yet, making contact and temporarily getting in front of Musquin, but Musquin got him back as they proceeded to race aggressively through the halfpipe once again. As the countdown clock ticked under two minutes, Tomac finally found a line to the outside of Musquin to move into first place.
Things settled down after that, with Tomac, Musquin and Grant finishing top three, just as they did in Moto 1. That made them the top three in the overall standings as well.
Moto Results 1
1. Eli Tomac
2. Marvin Musquin (-15.4 seconds)
3. Josh Grant
4. Cole Seely
5. Cooper Webb
6. Blake Baggett
7. Broc Tickle
8. Justin Bogle
9. Christian Craig
10. Dean Wilson
11. Justin Barcia
12. Weston Peick
13. Fredrik Noren
14. Cody Cooper
15. Martin Davalos
16. Kaven Benoit
17. Dakota Alix
18. Rhys Carter
19. Brandon Scharer
20. Heath Harrison
Moto Results 2
1. Eli Tomac
2. Marvin Musquin (-8.7 seconds)
3. Josh Grant
4. Dean Wilson
5. Justin Barcia
6. Jason Anderson
7. Broc Tickle
8. Blake Baggett
9. Cooper Webb
10. Justin Bogle
11. Weston Peick
12. Cole Seely
13. Martin Davalos
14. Christian Craig
15. Fredrik Noren
16. Dakota Alix
17. Rhys Carter
18. Heath Harrison
19. Angelo Pellegrini
20. Josh Mosiman
Overall Results
1. Eli Tomac (1-1)
2. Marvin Musquin (2-2)
3. Josh Grant (3-3)
4. Dean Wilson (10-4)
5. Broc Tickle (7-4)
6. Blake Baggett (6-8)
7. Cooper Webb (5-9)
8. Cole Seely (4-12)
9. Justin Barcia (11-5)
10. Justin Bogle (8-10)
11. Weston Peick (12-11)
12. Christian Craig (9-14)
13. Jason Anderson (39-6)
14. Martin Davalos (15-13)
15. Fredrik Noren (13-15)
16. Dakota Alix (17-16)
17. Rhys Carter (18-17)
18. Cody Cooper (14-37)
19. Kaven Benoit (16-38)
20. Heath Harrison (20-18)