Tomac. Tomac. Tomac. Tomac. That’s about all you need to know in regard to round 11 of Monster Energy AMA Supercross from St. Louis last Saturday. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider outclassed rivals Jason Anderson and Marvin Musquin and ran away to a 20-second win—his fifth in the season (most in the class). 

“This is one of those times to where sometimes you have to swallow your pride a little bit. But at the same time, Eli was just savage. He was crushing us,” Anderson said in the post-race press conference. 

The 250 class was a closer affair—briefly—with title combatants Zach Osborne and Austin Forkner going toe-to-toe before the young Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider crashed while leading. Osborne cruised from there to capture his first win since the opener in Arlington. He now holds an eight-point lead in the championship standings. 

Let’s dive into the lap data to figure out how these races were won and lost with this week’s Sign of the (Lap) Times. First, our traditional lap time charts.

450SX Class — Main Event — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	46.455	7	48.343	Eli Tomac
2	2	47.131	5	49.074	Jason Anderson
3	3	47.910	4	49.208	Marvin Musquin
4	4	48.107	4	49.471	Justin Brayton
5	6	48.379	8	49.695	Blake Baggett
6	5	48.627	7	49.689	Weston Peick
7	7	48.772	8	49.951	Broc Tickle
8	9	49.269	8	50.448	Christian Craig
9	8	49.388	11	50.299	Dean Wilson
10	10	49.416	13	50.660	Malcolm Stewart
11	13	49.610	6	51.181	Kyle Cunningham
12	11	49.673	10	50.699	Benny Bloss
13	14	49.910	6	51.554	Tyler Bowers
14	22	49.958	6	50.924	Chad Reed
15	12	49.962	10	51.148	Vince Friese
16	15	50.549	6	51.908	Kyle Chisholm
17	16	50.817	7	52.754	Cedric Soubeyras
18	17	50.824	4	53.555	Ben LaMay
19	18	51.093	4	53.993	Adam Enticknap
20	20	51.374	4	54.966	AJ Catanzaro
21	19	51.718	5	54.163	Dylan Merriam
22	21	52.071	4	55.652	Scott Champion

250SX Class — Main Event — Lap Times

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	On Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	5	48.030	6	49.865	Austin Forkner
2	1	48.115	7	49.575	Zach Osborne
3	2	48.502	7	49.691	Jeremy Martin
4	22	48.755	6	49.700	Martin Davalos
5	3	48.814	8	50.074	Jordon Smith
6	4	49.197	8	50.297	Kyle Peters
7	7	49.689	7	50.968	Luke Renzland
t-8	9	50.171	6	51.697	Sean Cantrell
t-8	10	50.171	2	52.617	Thomas Ramette
10	8	50.184	6	51.086	Michael Mosiman
11	6	50.232	7	51.270	Brandon Hartranft
12	13	50.835	4	52.521	Anthony Rodriguez
13	11	51.090	3	52.608	Jacob Williamson
14	19	51.169	4	53.744	Nick Gaines
15	17	51.756	7	53.873	Ramyller Alves
16	12	51.823	9	52.743	Zack Williams
17	14	51.944	8	53.535	Josh Cartwright
18	16	51.959	6	54.288	John Short
19	18	52.037	11	53.077	Josh Osby
20	15	52.285	3	53.676	Cody Vanbuskirk
21	20	52.797	4	57.542	Drayke Sizemore
22	21	52.962	4	56.067	Tanner Basso

Not Even Close

We told you about Tomac’s flawless route in The Show-Me State, but if you dig through his lap times in comparison to the rest of the field, it somehow becomes even more extraordinary. Here are some impressive numbers:

5

Laps in the 46-second range. No other rider put in ONE lap in the 46-second range. 

10

Laps that were faster than third-place finisher Marvin Musquin’s quickest lap.

10

Laps put in under 48 seconds. Jason Anderson was second-best with six; Musquin had two.

5

Laps out of the first six Tomac put in under 47 seconds. On his first registered lap (lap two), he put in a 47.020. His next five laps were all under 47 seconds. 

10

Of the first 13 laps, he registered a time under 48 seconds.

Forkner vs. Osborne

Oh, what could have been. Entering St. Louis tied in points, Austin Forkner and Zach Osborne were set to go head-to-head again in the main event, as the two darted out to an early gap over third. Osborne really started to apply the pressure around lap seven, but Forkner was able to hang onto the lead until he crashed out on lap 11.

“Yeah, I felt like he kind of gapped me a little bit three or four laps in, and then I was able to kind of find my feet and make some places where I felt like I could kind of hammer and get close to him,” Osborne said. “So, I knew that we were only sort of halfway in and I still had plenty of time. I was just trying to be a little bit patient and kind of let it come to me. Then obviously he went down, so it was a bummer for the race, but it made it better for me.”

Osborne went on to win the main event, and coupled with Forkner’s fifth, he now sits eight points up heading in Indianapolis. 

Check out a side-by-side comparison of the two before Forkner crashed.

Lap	Osborne	Forkner
2	49.380	48.968
3	49.007	48.876
4	48.658	48.744
5	48.585	48.266
6	48.304	48.030
7	48.115	48.787
8	48.501	48.489
9	48.210	48.427
10	48.937	49.570

Baggett vs. Peick

The only real battle in the 450 main event was a fight for fifth between battered and bruised Weston Peick and battered and bruised Blake Baggett. While neither had much on the line, you would have never known, as they fought for nearly the entire main event over fifth. Baggett moved into seventh behind Peick on lap five and followed him as they moved past Broc Tickle. Then, Baggett stayed there. No matter what he did, he couldn’t get around the immovable force that was Peick.  

“It was a good race, he was riding really well,” Peick said to Steve Matthes after the race. “I started about tenth and passed a few guys. We’re coming off riding with injuries and whatnot. He was on me, so I just rode my race. I had some faster sections and he has his faster sections. All night I felt comfortable. Track was good, dirt was good, it was a fun layout.”

Check out how the last nine laps stacked up for the pair.

Lap	Peick	Baggett
19	49.639	49.285
20	49.403	49.689
21	49.754	49.368
22	50.200	50.620
23	49.796	50.558
24	50.745	51.586
25	50.445	51.793
26	51.524	50.378
27	51.788	50.956

Forkner and Alves

Forkner’s fifth didn’t come without controversy. Late in the race, he collided with rookie Ramyller Alves as the two exited the whoops. Alves wrote on social media that he didn’t get a blue flag as Forkner approached:

“Incident with rider — I want to get it cleared out, I wasn’t trying to take out or hold up any rider that was on the lead lap. On the lap of the incident, from the finish line jump till the accident I didn’t get one, not one blue flag waved at me, I had no idea that the rider behind me was a rider on the lead lap. I was battling for positions the whole race and not seeing a blue flag being waved on that lap, caused me to think that he was a rider I was battling with. Couple laps before the incident, I got a blue flag waved so I let the rider behind me pass, but it ended up not being a rider on the lead lap, it was actually a rider I was battling with. It’s a difficult situation to be in as a rider.”

Forkner, who lost about ten or so seconds in the crash, and was visablly upset with Alves after the incident, said he probably could have handled it a little better:

“As far as my little 'tantrum,' I prolly should’ve calmed down a bit before I said something, but hey, tempers are high, it’s a close championship, and it’s not over.”

Here is how their lap times compared before and after the incident:

Lap	Forkner	Alves
15	50.227	54.471
16	51.031	53.936
17	1:03.238	1:09.529
18	50.860	57.906
19	52.138	55.251