The List: Eventual Champion's Overall Win Total

After seeing four different winners to start the season, the latter winner has continued his winning streak. Eli Tomac became the first repeat winner of 2022 with a dominating 1-1 day at the RedBud National. Last week I dug into the stats and 30 times has the first rider to earn two overall wins eventually become the champion that season (of the 50 seasons completed). That is 60 percent.

Well, then the series headed to Massachusetts with the brutal The Wick 338 circuit. “Alexa, play ‘Enter Sandman.’” Enter Eli Tomac.

Tomac rattled off another 1-1 day—meaning five straight moto wins in a row and seven total so far—to become the first rider to three overall wins. The #3 sits one point behind Chase Sexton in the standings at the official halfway point of the 12-round championship. Things are boding well for the Colorado native.

Sexton (first) and Tomac (second) are leading the charge in the 450 Class through the first six rounds of 2022.

Kellen Brauer and myself were bench racing earlier this week about how many overall wins each previous champion had in their title season. So for this week’s List feature I dug into that data—how many overall wins does the eventual champion from each season have? Here is a rundown of the average benchmark for the eventual champion’s overall wins in the first 50 years of AMA Motocross.

Although, there have been several years where the rider with the most overall wins did not win the title and this is racing so nothing is guaranteed, it is fun to see where the current championship riders stand. The most overall wins in a single season came from two legends: Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart. RC was the first rider to go 24-0 in the premier class—which he did so in 2002 and then repeated again two years later in 2004. The GOAT almost did so in 2005 as well, winning 22 out of 24 motos. Stewart had his perfect season in 2008 aboard a Kawasaki KX450F. Behind the two perfect seasons, Ryan Dungey had two ten-win seasons (2010 and 2012) and a few riders have claimed eight overall wins or more (Eli Tomac, Ken Roczen, Ryan Villopoto, and Bob Hannah).

How about the least amount of overall wins in a championship year? Jean-Michael Bayle in 1991 and Gary Jones in 1974 both recorded zero overall wins in those title seasons. So the average overall wins per seasons is…5.7 wins.

The most frequent amount of overall wins per season is five. Champions have claimed five overall wins right on the dot in seven of the 50 years.

Through six rounds, Tomac sits with three overall wins, only two off that most frequent amount and three away from going over the average. Something of note is that in Tomac’s three previous 450 Class Pro Motocross seasons he claimed 4 (2017), 8 (2018), and 6 (2019) overall wins—the most in 2018 and 2016 and tied with Marvin Musquin for the most in 2017.

Again, these numbers do not gaurentee ET3 will win the title. Sexton has been super steady—finishing either first or second in 11 of the 12 motos to date—and still has a strong bid for his maiden Pro Motocross title. Take a look at the champion’s overall wins per season.

Note: the three perfect seasons are noted in bold.

Champion's Overall Win Total

Stats through the 2021 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship

Quick Notes

In the 50 years of AMA Motocross in the U.S., there have been 26 different riders to win a title.

Average: 5.76 overall wins

Mode (most frequent): 5 overall wins—happened 7 seasons

Most/Least Overall wins for Champion

Stats through the 2021 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship