Image: Supplied.

Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac has captured his third win of the 2018 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, storming to a controlled victory in Arlington, Texas.

Tomac led from the outset and was never headed, eventually taking the chequers by 5.695s from Marvin Musquin (Red Bull KTM) and Blake Baggett (Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM).

Runaway points leader Jason Anderson (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) salvaged fourth despite a costly crash in the opening laps, now 36 points ahead of Cole Seely (Team Honda HRC) in the standings after Justin Barcia (Monster Energy Knich Yamaha) went out of his heat with a suspected hand injury.

Australian icon Chad Reed (Team CR22) matched Mike Larocco for the most premier class starts in supercross history, making his 227th main event and going on to claim 15th in the main event. He’s now positioned 14th in the championship tally.

It was defending 250SX East champion Zach Osborne (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna) who raced to victory in a dramatic opening round of the series tonight.

Carnage ensued in the first turn, with a pile-up taking a list of contenders including heat race winner Martin Davalos (Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki) out of contention. Teammate Austin Forkner – winner of heat one – also encountered troubles on lap one, rebounding for P7.

Out front it was RJ Hampshire (Geico Honda) early on, however following an early error Osborne made his way to the lead on lap 14 and raced to a dominant 3.312s win from Colt Nichols (Monster Energy Yamalube Yamaha) and former Australian champion Jimmy Decotis (Autotrader Yoshimura Suzuki).

Next Saturday night sees the 2018 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship travel further east to Tampa, Florida, for round eight of the season.

Detailed results