
The first east coast trip of the 2018 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship provided yet another dominant afternoon for Monster Energy, as both Eli Tomac and Aaron Plessinger stood atop the podium for the second time this season. The High Point National provided the hottest conditions of the season to date, but that did not deter the two championship favorites from emerging triumphant despite some of their stiffest competition of the season. Fittingly enough, the Father’s Day weekend spectacle gave an opportunity for both second-generation racers to honor their dads with a checkered flag.
While Tomac was as fast as ever, his path to victory was much more difficult, and it came at the expense of his undefeated moto record. The layout at High Point was littered with elevation changes and an array off-camber corners, and also was hands down the roughest track the riders have seen this summer. As a result, Tomas was caught a little off his game and had to dig deep aboard his Monster Energy Kawasaki in an effort to keep his overall win streak intact, going bar-to-bar with bitter rival Marvin Musquin in both motos. In the end, he withstood the challenge and continued the dominant start to his title defense.
“[Today] was good. I was able to get out front early so I didn’t have to deal with a lot of roost. This track always has a tendency to get rough, so it was good to make things easier on myself [by getting good starts],” explained Tomac. “The first moto was tough. I wasn’t as good as Marv [Musquin] in that one. I was fighting myself and wasn’t flowing. I regrouped and got closer [in Moto 2], but Marv was still all over us. We were just able to hold him off.”
After a bit of an off outing at the previous round, Plessinger came out swinging at High Point and was back in the form that carried him into the points lead earlier in the season. He coasted to an easy opening moto win on his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star/Yamaha, but had to do some work in the final moto in order to put himself in a position to win. A little bit of good fortune from the racing gods played into Plessinger’s favor as he chased Jeremy Martin for the win in Moto 2, and the rising star went on to capture his second 1-1 sweep of the season, regaining control of the points lead along with it.
“We had a really good day at Glen Helen, but then my bike didn’t really work well in Colorado. We did some testing during the off week and I think it showed today,” said Plessinger. “We got some good starts and I was able to ride my own race. In the second moto I worked my way to the front and then something happened to Jeremy’s [Martin] bike, so we ended up with 1-1 finishes.”