Eli Tomac clinches third consecutive outdoor motocross championship

The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider joins Gary Jones, Tony DiStefano and Ricky Carmichael as the only riders to threepeat in the top class.

Winning both motos and the overall at Budds Creek gave Tomac a 50-point advantage over Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Marvin Musquin going into the final round this Saturday at Ironman Raceway in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Musquin finished third in both motos for a third-place overall finish behind Jason Anderson. With 50 points left up for grabs and Tomac ahead on the tiebreaker, the championship is settled one week early, something the Colorado rider said he wasn't expecting.

“I honestly didn’t even know I had the championship until the last lap," Tomac said. "I thought that I needed one more spot from the guys behind me, so that was a little bit of a surprise. It was good to get the job done today. It’s tough to beat the first championship, but they’re all special and unique in their own ways.”

Tomac has always been known for his speed, but consistency this year allowed him to clinch the title early. His worst overall finish of the season was a fourth at the previous round at Unadilla, where he turned in a seventh and a third in the two motos. As he admits in this interview, he was hampered in that first moto by sore muscles from working on his ranch the week of the race.

Except for Unadilla, Tomac finished in the top three overall at every round, winning five overalls, 10 motos and turning in three one-one moto sweeps. His title-winning sweep at Budds Creek was emphatic, winning the two motos by 13.9 and 14.9 seconds.

Going into Budds Creek, Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen was the closest competitor to Tomac in the points standings, but Musquin passed Roczen both on the track and in the standings to move into second.