Last Saturday’s Unadilla National saw a remarkable pair of rides from Honda HRC’s Chase Sexton where he passed some of Pro Motocross’ elite in both motos to go 1-1. At the tip of the spear both times was Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Eli Tomac, who ended up leading 10 laps on the day at Unadilla. In the past when we talk about incredible rides through the field to win both motos, it would be Tomac who we are talking about. The three-time 450 class champion even has had a name associated with his incredible rides: Beast Mode. But Sexton seemingly took a page out of the Tomac playbook at Unadilla and gave him a taste of his own medicine as Sexton came from sixth to first and sliced up a seven-second deficit to Tomac in a hurry in the first moto only to follow it up with a quick catch and pass on lap four of the second moto.
It was impressive. But perhaps more impressive was who Sexton was catching and passing. Eli Tomac doesn’t relinquish the lead often. In his entire 450 class career prior to Unadilla, Eli Tomac had started 176 motos and won 64 of them. Only eight times over those 176 motos had Eli Tomac been leading the race at some point and not gone on to win the moto. Two of those eight times were DNF’s though as his bike failed from the lead of the first moto at RedBud in 2018 and of course there was the huge crash while leading the second moto at Thunder Valley in 2015 that ended his season. Eliminating those two outliers, Tomac had realistically only been caught and passed for the win six times in 176 races. If he goes to the lead, there’s a pretty good chance he’s staying there.
The last time Tomac was leading a race at some point and didn’t win the moto prior to Unadilla last weekend was the 2018 RedBud DNF. But with the DNF at RedBud, he was handily in control of the moto until the bike expired with three laps to go. You’d then have to go back to the 2018 Southwick National where Tomac and Marvin Musquin had a battle royale in 450 moto two. Musquin led early before Tomac caught and passed him. But Musquin didn’t let Tomac go and eventually found the right lines to repass Tomac on the eighth lap of the race and take off with the win. That was 1,505 days between the last time Tomac was legitimately caught and passed for the win at Unadilla on Saturday. Sexton actually almost did this earlier this year though when he caught and passed Tomac at Spring Creek before crashing from the lead late, but Unadilla seemed to be even another step higher than what he did at Spring Creek.
That’s what made Chase Sexton’s performance at Unadilla such an eyebrow raiser. Aside from the double moto win, the regaining of the points lead by a single point over Eli Tomac, and his fifth career win, Chase Sexton Eli Tomac’d Eli Tomac.
Now the big caveat to bring up here is that Unadilla is historically not an Eli Tomac track. After finishing second with 2-2 scores on Saturday, he has now raced Unadilla seven times in his 450 class career and never won the overall. In fact, the 2-2 performance was one of his best days at Unadilla with only a 1-2 performance for second overall in 2018 being slightly better in terms of results. It could be the harder dirt, it could be Unadilla historically coming after the Loretta Lynn’s break, but whatever it is, Tomac and Unadilla just don’t gel.
![Eli Tomac ahead of Chase Sexton.]()
Eli Tomac ahead of Chase Sexton. Align Media ![Chase Sexton behind Eli Tomac.]()
Chase Sexton behind Eli Tomac. Align Media ![Sexton and Tomac side-by-side.]()
Sexton and Tomac side-by-side. Align Media ![Sexton going around Tomac.]()
Sexton going around Tomac. Align Media ![Sexton in the lead.]()
Sexton in the lead. Align Media
On the flipside, Unadilla wasn’t exactly a Chase Sexton track coming in either. He’d only raced there four times before and landed on the podium just once with a 3-3 on a GEICO Honda in the 250 class back in 2019. Even last year after he came off winning the Washougal National before the break, just like he did this year, Sexton ended up going 11-2 at Unadilla for fifth overall in an up and down day (He crashed big-time while near the front of the field coming through the holeshot line and had to wait for everyone to go by before going back to his bike. He remounted in dead last about half a lap down and finished 11th, so without a crash his day could have been even better). Sexton’s 2022 Unadilla ride is just the second time in his career he’s gone 1-1 and arguably the first time this year he looked to be convincingly the best guy since his opening round win at Fox Raceway. Things are really starting to click for Sexton and doing the near impossible to Eli Tomac was really just icing on the cake.
Moving forward in this championship though, there’s two paths that lay ahead. There’s the path that makes this Unadilla ride for Sexton look like the real eye opener it was where Sexton turns this whole thing into his championship over the last three rounds. Or there’s the path where Tomac makes Unadilla look like the outlier it was by winning at Budds Creek and Ironman (where he’s had success before) forcing Sexton to dominate at Fox Raceway again like he did at the opener to have a shot at the title. No matter which path lays ahead, these two are going to make it exhilarating to watch.
