Monster Energy Kawasaki rider Eli Tomac secured his second overall win of the 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship with his 2-1 result at Washougal.
RCH Suzuki’s Ken Roczen matched the results of Tomac but with the tie break going to the rider with the best result in the second moto, the Kawasaki rider was awarded the overall victory.
With heavy rains falling the day prior, Round 9 of the 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship proved to be fickle from start to finish.
Phil Nicoletti found the holeshot with Andrew Short on his tail for the first opening turns, but before the first lap was over Ken Roczen would do what he does best and make an early moto dash for the front.
Coming into the Washougal whoops Roczen rode wide and blasted through to take the lead by the end of them. Then Christophe Pourcel came into the mix to overtake Short and find his groove riding well in second.
Tomac and Pourcel would battle for second while Roczen rode to the moto win. Tomac got around Pourcel, then Pourcel went down hard allowing Musquin past.
Roczen would finish first with Tomac and Musquin rounding out the podium behind him.
Musquin grabed the holeshot in Moto 2 with his teammate Dean Wilson as well as Tomac right behind him.
Roczen wasted no time to take a fair start and push through the pack and take the lead within the first few turns.
Tomac quickly found his way around Wilson and furthered his pursuit to put the pressure onto Musquin. Musquin was working to keep an eye on Tomac and nearly lost control a number of times, and ultimately gave way as Tomac took over second. Tomac then made a charge for the lead and took the top position off Roczen.
Tomac grew his lead over Roczen to more than a eight second lead. Speculating on what Roczen was dealing with, it was discovered in the pits that Tomac had switch to tinted goggles for the second moto while Roczen remained riding in clear goggles, but it was unclear how much that was truly affecting him.
Without any change in the front of the race, Tomac rode well to the finish for a 16-second lead, moto win and the overall on the day. Roczen claimed second on the moto and the day while Musquin cleaned up the podium with third on the moto and day.
450 CLASS RESULTS
Eli Tomac (2-1)
Ken Roczen (1-2)
Marvin Musquin (3-3)
Weston Peick (7-5)
Justin Barcia (10-4)
Andrew Short (6-7)
Benny Bloss (5-9)
Phil Nicoletti (4-11)
Dean Wilson (8-10)
Frederick Noren (15-8)
450 CLASS OVERALL POINTS
Ken Roczen, 434
Eli Tomac, -55
Marvin Musquin, -151
Justin Barcia, -190
Christophe Pourcel, -217
Broc Tickle, -263
Andrew Short, -279
Justin Brayton, -282
Cole Seely, -283
Benny Bloss, -283
Photo: Simon Cudby