Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac claimed his fifth consecutive overall victory in the 2018 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship at round 5 at Muddy Creek Raceway in Blountville, Tennessee. Tomac now holds a 32-point lead in the championship standings with 14 more motos left in the series. “It was a successful day and we’re happy to be taking some points home with us,” Tomac said. “The goal is to get a good start so we’re out front, and I was able to do that in moto 1. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the start we wanted in moto 2 so I really had to battle to make some passes. It feels great to leave here with the overall win, and we’re going to keep working hard every week.” Monster Energy/Yamaha Factory Racing’s Justin Barcia earned his best finish of the season. With a pair of 2-2 moto finishes, Barcia emerged with second overall in Tennessee and sits third overall in the series point standings.
“I was fairly happy with moto 1 and I think moto 2 was a little better—leading laps is always a good thing,” Barcia said. “I felt really comfortable on the bike, we’re making great progress, and second overall is a step in the right direction to taking a win. That’s obviously the goal. I had a lot of fun at Muddy Creek, the track was very difficult. It’s really challenging. It’s slick and choppy, tight and one-lined a little bit, so you have to be kind of crafty. I’ll take the second and move on to one of my favorite tracks of the year at Southwick.”
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing's Marvin Musquin began his day by qualifying second in practice and finishing fifth in moto 1 and achieved a victory in moto 2 to take third overall on the day.
“It was a big bummer to go down in the first lap of moto 1,” Musquin said. “I clipped someone’s rear wheel and couldn’t avoid it and crashed—it’s frustrating. I’ve been feeling really good, training really hard and working really hard with the team, and it’s been paying off. I fought hard in the second moto and I knew that all I needed to do is get a good start, fight for it and not go down. So that’s what I did and I was able to control the race until the end. [It’s] one more moto win—still not what I want, but that’s all I had today. I’m really happy; it’s not too bad for the championship even if we lose some points, it’s still a podium and we keep on working hard.”