Round 8 of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship is underway from Spring Creek. Check back here for recaps and highlights from the 450 Class throughout the day.

QUALIFYING

The stretch-run shootout between Marvin Musquin and Eli Tomac begins now! For what it’s worth, the “win” in qualifying went to Tomac thanks to his 2:12.223 in the first session, but the two riders were much closer in the second session — In fact, they were separated by just a couple hundredths of a second. (Both riders were in the 2:13s but Musquin was slightly faster in that particular session.)

450 Combined Qualifying Results
1. Eli Tomac, 2:12.223
2. Marvin Musquin, 2:13.138
3. Ken Roczen, 2:13.438
4. Justin Barcia, 2:14.558
5. Blake Baggett, 2:14.924
6. Justin Hill, 2:15.598
7. Cooper Webb, 2:17.057
8. Weston Peick, 2:17.602
9. Henry Miller, 2:18.235
10. Justin Bogle, 2:18.611
11. Benny Bloss, 2:18.838
12. Cody Cooper, 2:18.838
13. Phil Nicoletti, 2:19.130
14. Kyle Cunningham, 2:19.209
15. Jerry Robin, 2:19.526
16. Heath Harrison, 2:19.680
17. Lorenzo Locurcio, 2:20.607
18. Jake Masterpool, 2:20.881
19. Brandon Scharer, 2:21.250
20. Ben LaMay, 2:21.256
Full Results

MOTO 1

A lot of big names quickly found themselves near the front of the field at the start of the moto. Ken Roczen took the holeshot and led the first lap of the race while Marvin Musquin and Eli Tomac battled for second place.

On Lap 3, Tomac passed Musquin but by that point, Roczen had built up a four-second lead. Tomac quickly chopped down that lead and started applying a lot of pressure to Roczen. While they battled for the lead, Musquin struggled to catch up to them. The Frenchman ultimately went down on Lap 6 and lost nearly 20 seconds. He also lost third place to Blake Baggett in the process — a two-point swing that could prove costly in his attempt to hold onto the red plate.

Meanwhile the battle for the lead raged on. All told, it lasted about 15 minutes before the lead finally changed hands. At that point, lapped traffic became a factor, with Roczen getting held up as Tomac zoomed by him through the whoops. Tomac started to open up a lead over the final laps, but as RedBud proved, it’s not over til it’s over. This time though, Tomac averted any mechanical issues and took the checkered flag over Roczen by 13 seconds.

Third place went to Baggett, who earned his third moto podium of the season and his first since Round 3. Musquin and Justin Barcia rounded out the top five.

After losing the points lead at RedBud, Tomac needed just one moto to recapture it. By picking up seven points in Moto 1, he now holds a four-point edge over Musquin as they head into the second moto. A top-two result later in the day would ensure that Tomac gets the red plate back.

450 Moto 1 Results
1. Eli Tomac
2. Ken Roczen
3. Blake Baggett
4. Marvin Musquin
5. Justin Barcia
6. Weston Peick
7. Cooper Webb
8. Phil Nicoletti
9. Henry Miller
10. Justin Hill
11. Benny Bloss
12. Kyle Cunningham
13. Lorenzo Locurcio
14. Justin Bogle
15. Cody Cooper
16. Jake Masterpool
17. Joey Crown
18. Nick Gaines
19. Ben LaMay
20. Felix Lopez
Full Results

MOTO 1 EXTENDED RECAP

MOTO 1 HIGHLIGHT: TOMAC PASSES MUSQUIN FOR 2ND

MOTO 1 HIGHLIGHT: TOMAC PASSES ROCZEN FOR THE LEAD

MOTO 2

Yet another holeshot for Justin Bogle — that’s his fourth one in the last six motos — but Marvin Musquin and Ken Roczen both got around him on the opening lap. As those two began to battle for the lead, Eli Tomac was working his way into the top five. He picked off Bogle for fifth, then got around Weston Peick for fourth and Blake Baggett for third. That left him with 23:30 on the countdown clock to make a run at Musquin and Roczen.

Tomac started closing in on Roczen but a mistake right around the midway point — he nearly crashed coming out of a turn — cost the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider a few seconds. Although Tomac reeled him back in, Roczen proved to be difficult to pass. WIth a little over five minutes to go, Tomac went inside of Roczen as they went downhill and around a corner. The two rivals were side-by-side as they went back uphill, but Tomac got back inside as they went around the next turn and finally made the pass stick.

Now into second place, Tomac faced a five-second deficit with only a few laps to make it up. But by the time the countdown clock expired, Tomac was already all over the Frenchman, and with two and a half laps to go, he charged through an uphill section and took the lead away from Musquin. That allowed Tomac to pull away for his class-leading 11th moto of the season. It also gave him his sixth overall win of the year and his fourth 1-1 sweep.

Even before passing Musquin, Tomac was already in position for the overall victory and already in position to take back the red plate. But the pass also created a six-point swing in the championship standings. So instead of leaving Spring Creek with a one-point lead over Musquin, Tomac will now leave with a seven-point advantage.

Musquin (4-2) finished third overall for the day behind Tomac and Roczen (2-3).

450 Moto 2 Results
1. Eli Tomac
2. Marvin Musquin
3. Ken Roczen
4. Blake Baggett
5. Justin Barcia
6. Weston Peick
7. Justin Hill
8. Benny Bloss
9. Cooper Webb
10. Phil Nicoletti
11. Henry Miller
12. Justin Bogle
13. Lorenzo Locurcio
14. Ben LaMay
15. Joey Crown
16. Kyle Cunningham
17. Toshiki Tomita
18. John Short
19. Nick Gaines
20. Jake Masterpool
Full Results

MOTO 2 EXTENDED RECAP

MOTO 2 HIGHLIGHT: TOMAC NEARLY GOES DOWN

MOTO 2 HIGHLIGHT: TOMAC PASSES ROCZEN FOR 2ND

MOTO 2 HIGHLIGHT: TOMAC PASSES MUSQUIN FOR THE LEAD

450 OVERALL RESULTS

1. Eli Tomac (1-1)
2. Ken Roczen (2-3)
3. Marvin Musquin (4-2)
4. Blake Baggett (3-4)
5. Justin Barcia (5-5)
6. Weston Peick (6-6)
7. Cooper Webb (7-9)
8. Justin Hill (10-7)
9. Phil Nicoletti (8-10)
10. Benny Bloss (11-8)
11. Henry Miller (9-11)
12. Justin Bogle (14-12)
13. Lorenzo Locurcio (13-13)
14. Kyle Cunningham (12-16)
15. Joey Crown (17-15)
16. Ben LaMay (19-14)
17. Jake Masterpool (16-20)
18. Cody Cooper (15-24)
19. Nick Gaines (18-19)
20. Toshiki Tomita (40-17)

450 POINT STANDINGS

1. Eli Tomac, 351
2. Marvin Musquin, 344
3. Justin Barcia, 296
4. Ken Roczen, 288
5. Blake Baggett, 270
6. Weston Peick, 223
7. Benny Bloss, 199
8. Phil Nicoletti, 196
9. Justin Hill, 114
10-T. Kyle Cunningham, 107
10-T. Cody Cooper, 107

(Story and photos from ProMotocross.com)