Eli Tomac Wraps Up the 2022 Supercross 450SX Championship

Empower Field at Mile High Stadium, Denver, CO — April 30, 2022

It’s Eli Tomac’s home state of Colorado, he needs a 14th place finish or better, and Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX title number two is officially his. That sounds like a no-brainer. But, it’s Supercross and the sport can reach out and grab a rider that loses his focus in an instant.

The premier class title is not the only one on the line tonight as the 250SX West division could be settled before heading to Salt Lake City for the finale next week. With a 23-point lead, Christian Craig can clinch with a feature win regardless of where second-place Hunter Lawrence finishes. Craig only needs to leave Denver with a 27-point advantage to assure himself the season title.

250SX West Heat One

Christian Craig(28) grabbed the holeshot and established a comfortable lead right from Lap One of the 250SX West Heat One. Taking care of business as he has done all year, Craig finished nine seconds ahead of Jo Shimoda(30), and Vince Friese(62) took the third spot.

250SX West Heat Two

As expected Hunter Lawrence(96) matched Craig with a holeshot win in Heat Two and followed the same script. Building a growing lead early in the moto, the only rider in sight was Michael Mosiman(29). The GASGAS MC 250F rider went down midway through the moto and essentially gifted Lawrence an easy path to the win. Mosiman recovered to take second as Garrett Marchbanks(35) came home in third.

250SX West Main Event

Side-by-side in the starting gates, Lawrence grabbed the lead, as Craig followed closely behind. Aware of what was at stake, the crowd roared every time Craig rode up to the rear wheel of Lawrence.

At the ten-minute mark, Craig slid off the back of his bike after getting sideways in a corner of the sand section of the track. He dropped to seventh before he was able to remount his bike and get back into the race.

By the five-minute point of the timed portion of the moto, Craig had fought his way back into the fourth position. However, Craig trailed Lawrence by 12 seconds as he was chasing Shimoda for a podium position. Lawrence held a five-second advantage over Mosiman in second.

With a minute and a half left, Craig blew past Shimoda in the whoops and in doing so drew within three seconds of Mosiman and cut Lawrence’s lead to under 10 seconds. That was the way they finished as Lawrence will have a mathematical shot at the title going to Salt Lake. Craig’s task will be a little easier in the final event of the year, his lead shrunk to 18 points, but he needs just nine points to clinch. Just like the task that Tomac faced this week, a 14th place finish will wrap up the championship.

250SX West Main Event Results

250SX West Standings

450SX Heat One

What is the best way to stay out of trouble in a Supercross moto? Take the holeshot and pull away from the pack of riders chasing you for a wire-to-wire victory. That is exactly what Eli Tomac(3) did in Heat One of the 450SX class. And the crowd loved it! The roar was thunderous as they cheered on their favorite son.

Marvin Musquin(25), and Justin Brayton(10) finished second and third. They were merely a footnote as Tomac can now focus on a safe ride in the main event to secure his championship.

450SX Heat Two

Chase Sexton(23) fired out of the gate in Heat Two, Justin Barcia(51), and Jason Anderson(21) followed in tight pursuit. Anderson would like to pull off a heat win to get a top gate pick and keep the pressure on Tomac as they race in the feature.

Anderson passed Barcia and began to track down Sexton pulling to within a half a second on the final lap. Sexton held on for the win and Malcolm Stewart(27) passed Barcia late for the third position.

450SX Main Event

Chase Sexton outran Eli Tomac to take the holeshot. Jason Anderson trailed the two leaders but kept them within striking distance. Just two minutes in Sexton overshot a corner and hit a tuff block in front of the mechanic’s area.

Anderson ran down Tomac two minutes later and wisely Tomac conceded the position. Malcolm Stewart was the next rider to close on Eli and again racing smart, Tomac allowed him to pass uncontested.

The next rider in line, Justin Barcia, went down just past the midpoint of the race giving Tomac a cushion on Marvin Musquin who was running fourth.

Musquin caught and passed Tomac to drop him to fourth. Then Sexton pushed the pending champion back to fifth. To the delight of the Colorado fans, Tomac coasted across the finish line to complete the title quest.

Finishing just ahead of last year’s champion Cooper Webb(1), Tomac will take that plate number into 2023 and proudly wear it during his title defense.

450SX Main Event Results

450SX Standings