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.

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Aaron Plessinger won the start and took control of the situation on the first lap, but soon Ken Roczen passed the opponent and tried to break away. He did it well for 8 laps. But on the whoops, Ken lost his rhythm, his bike sausage twice, and the third time he fell. The fall happened at a low speed, so Roczen immediately got up and went forward, but …

Cooper Webb hesitated a bit in turn 1 and finished 5th on the first lap, but Jason Anderson’s awkward fall, in which he took Dylan Ferrandis with him, opened the way for the KTM driver.

Webb soon took out Plessinger, on the 4th lap he was in 2nd position and rushed to catch up with Roczen. At that moment, Ken Roczen’s lead was more than 2 seconds. But the fall leveled the gap, because Webb just picked up speed – and slipped Honda! This happened 2 laps before the finish. At the last minute of the race, Ken again managed to get closer to the new leader, but 0.9 seconds was not enough to get the opponent.

The podium was closed by Eli Tomak, who passed Plessinger behind Webb in lap 10. Plessinger finished 4th and Justin Barsha finished TOP-5.

Another victory of Cooper Webb once again threw Roczen back in the general classification. If before the start of the race his lag was 13 points, now it has increased slightly again. Eli Tomak, however, finally said goodbye to the chances of defending the title in 2021: he is now 40 points behind Webb with 46 points remaining in the draw.

Now all the attention will be on the Webb-Roczen duel in two finals – at the Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on April 24 and May 1.

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