With $100,000 on the line, Cianciarulo – in his 450SX Class debut and in the stadium that ruined his Western Regional 250SX Class season just five months before, grabbed the holeshot with Tim Gajser and Eli Tomac close in tow.
A few turns in, Cianciarulo got off balance on the edge of the track and had to roll the Finish Line jump, putting all three riders into a single turn at the same time.
No positions were changed then, but when Tomac got around Gajser one turn later, the two Kawasaki riders, competing for the first time and tied in points, started a nine-lap battle for a six-figure payday.
Tomac got around at one point on lap six of the 10-lap main event, but Cianciarulo slipped back into the lead within a few feet. Tomac turned up the pressure every lap and stayed right on Cianciarulo’s rear tire until lap nine, when he strategically took the Joker Lane in the hopes of turning a faster lap time and taking the lead when Cianciarulo was forced to take the Joker Lane on the final lap.
On the final lap, the two riders took their respective lanes and in a nail-biter, Cianciarulo came out less than a bike length ahead. Tomac pressured for the remainder of the lap but Cianciarulo held strong and held on for the victory and a $100,000 winner’s check.
“My first thought was, ‘What I life I get to live!’ That whole race I knew he was behind me,” said Cianciarulo. “We had a gap and I knew it was going to come down to the Joker Lane and … man, just the opportunity to race with Eli is cool. He’s accomplished so much and just to be out there on the track with him. I’m stoked to be out there. Honestly, I always looked up to Eli and so just to be out there racing with him is unreal.
“To come out on top of my first race is, I just can’t ask for anything better.”
Cianciarulo also showed some insight into a racer’s development when asked if the win taking place in the stadium where his Supercross championship slipped away gave him a sense of redemption.
“It’s a little bit of redemption, but to be honest with you I look at Vegas now – after winning the outdoor motocross championship – I look at Vegas as something that helped me get there. I really don’t look back on that race and think, ‘Oh, man,'” he explained. “I think it’s really helped me grow. And what a better way, to get a Monster Cup win in 450.
“I always love coming here, even that night,” Cianciarulo noted. “It sucked, obviously, but I love Vegas and I’m just so grateful; I can’t say that enough.”
Tomac was disappointed but not down with his second-place finish.
When asked about the roost and his timing with the Joker Lane, he said that “going into the Joker, I thought I just couldn’t really make the pass anywhere stick, so I was like, ‘Let me get into this thing a lap early and see if I can make the speed up on the track.’ Basically [I] ended up in the same exact spot there, eating a lot of roost. It was a great battle with Adam. Coming out in the losing spot is going to get at me a little bit, but overall [it was a] really fun weekend, great weekend for the team, and man, that was a battle.”
Malcolm Stewart finished the final main event, and in the overall standings, in third place.
In between the Cup Class, two other classes raced for national amateur titles.
Racing on 250cc displacement machines, the 250 Futures class dropped the gate twice for amateur riders on the cusp of starting their pro careers.
The standout rider this year was Factory Connection GEICO Honda’s Jett Lawrence. He took a holeshot in the first race to a clean win, then got a great start in the second race that put him in position to take the lead on lap four and carry it to the checkers.
Bringing enthusiasm and personality to the podium celebration, Lawrence’s first move after taking the 250 Futures National Title was to bite into a donut.
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Evan Ferry won the first Supermini Futures race from start to finish, pulling a 4.5 second gap by the white flag so he could ride cautiously to the win on the final lap ahead of Gavin Towers.
Ferry nearly holeshotted the second Supermini Futures race and was cleanly into the lead two corners in. He had an unchallenged six laps to take another win, this time ahead of a charging Chance Hymas.