Tomac wins Atlanta 1 but Webb extends points lead

2021 Monster Energy AMA Supercross
Round 13 – Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta, GA

Report by Trevor Hedge – Images by Jeff Kardas

450

The 450 Main saw Aaron Plessinger score the holeshot ahead of Cooper Webb and Vince Friese while Chase Sexton was fourth. Eli Tomac was seventh on the opening lap while Ken Roczen was way back in 15th with his work cut out for him. Anstie and Friese went down and lost around ten places before they were up and running again. 

Plessinger was very strong in the opening laps and built up a six-second lead over Webb in the first few minutes. Sexton had moved up to third place and Tomac was in to fourth with 14-minutes left on the shot clock. 

Sexton stole second place off Webb with seven-minutes left and started reeling in Aaron Plessinger. 

Sexton then was promoted through to the race lead after Plessinger went down and could only watch as Sexton, Webb and Tomac all streamed past.

It was then game on between Webb and Tomac! The Kawasaki man had the edge this time around, slipping past the KTM and then pulling away. Webb perhaps already having one eye on the championship in regards to minimising risks while in the heat of battle. 

Tomac pulled clear of Webb and then set about reeling in Sexton. Honda’s youngster mustered the pace to hold off the defending champion for a long time but Tomac slowly ate into that lead before moving to within striking distance with two laps to run. 

Sexton then got tripped up by a lapper which gave Tomac his opportunity, the Kawasaki man needed no second invitation, sweeping through to the lead and pulling away to victory.

Chase Sexton was a slightly disappointed second place while championship leader Cooper Webb rounded out the podium a further ten-seconds behind Sexton.

With Roczen only finishing ninth Webb extends his lead over the German to 22-points while Tomac is now only 14-points behind Roczen with four rounds still remaining. 

450 Results

250

Nate Thrasher started the MX2 Main at the front of the pack while Hunter Lawrence was at the rear of the field after going down at turn one. The Aussie youngster had won his Heat race earlier on in the night but was left with plenty of work to do in the Main. 

Thrasher led the way early on from Garrett Marchbanks, Cameron McAdoo and Mitchell Harrison. 

McAdoo lost some places after going down four-minutes into the race before rejoining in seventh place. Thrasher led by six-seconds at this juncture from Marchbanks while Cooper was running third. 

With four-minutes left on the shot clock Thrasher’s lead was five-seconds over Marchbanks with Cooper a further six-seconds behind in third while McAdoo had worked his way back up to fourth. 

That order remained the same until just before the last lap board when Marchbanks went down after getting cross-rutted and lost plenty of time trying to get his bike started again, drifting back to seventh place before getting up and running again but then drifting back further as he limped home. 

Thrasher was never headed though and the 18-year-old broke through with his maiden victory with a convincing 12-second win over championship leader Justin Cooper. 

McAdoo rounded out the podium ahead of Seth Hammaker, Kyle Peters and sixth placed Mitch Harrison. 

After fighting his way through the field Hunter Lawrence salvaged 16-points with a seventh place finish which maintained his third place in the points chase. 

While there are 17 rounds in this Monster Energy Supercross Championship, the 250 category is split into two separate championships, 250 East and 250 West. This was the sixth round of what will be a nine-round 250 West Championship.

250 Results