As anticipated prior to the start of the penultimate AMA Supercross in Salt Lake City, the circuit created at Rice-Eccles Stadium was liked by reigning 450SX champion Eli Tomak of Kawasaki. But the victory in the decisive race was won by another.
Eli Tomak was the first to find the key to speeding through the short stadium circuit built on Thursday at Rice-Eccles Stadium, where he became world champion a year ago. The design of the track turned out, as they say, “convenient for Tomak – he loves such.” Indeed, Eli finished the best lap on Q1 in 46.980. The second qualification was already slower – 47.123, and Tomak admitted that he made a couple of mistakes in this session.
Nevertheless, he became objectively the fastest, which he proved in the second qualifying battle. Tomak won the race against Malcolm Stewart and Ken Roczen. In this race, the Team HRC driver lost 8 seconds to both leaders on 8 laps, which is not typical for Roczen. But in Salt Lake City, the German always had problems … with endurance due to heavy breathing.
The second part of the battle took place in Heat 1 – and again, between Chase Sexton and Cooper Webb. This time, Webb easily left Sexton and finished 1st. TOP-5 in the race was closed by Marvin Musken, from whom no one expected any surprises in the decisive race …
After qualifying and qualifying, Eli Tomak said:
“The key to success in this decisive race will be the start. It is important to be in the right position on the first lap, which is why entering the 1st turn is so important. Malcolm did the same thing as me, so he stalked me the entire race and had a good chance of catching me, since I made a couple of small mistakes. I will try to speed up the decisive battle. “
But at the decisive moment, as usual, everything did not go according to plan and turned upside down.
Ken Roczen had a brilliant start from the inside starting position and easily won Holeshot, taking over the initiative from the first corner. Marvin Musken of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing got off to a great start as he walked cleanly down the inner lane and sat on a Honda wheel. The third position behind Webb was taken by Joy Sawaji, the pilot of the private KTM team. But Sawaji could not stand the pace imposed by the championship leaders and soon made a mistake, fell and let 10 opponents go ahead at once. Sawaji’s place was immediately taken by Anderson.
Roczen’s main rival in the championship – Cooper Webb, this time got lost in the crowd before the 1st turn, and when he broke free, he chased Anderson for a long time. Seeing the situation, Roczen went into the lead. He tried to pick up speed and roll away from KTM: he did not see which one of the rival factory team was hanging on his wheel.