Eli Tomac kept his slim championship alive as he came from third to take the win in the tough, outdoor Supercross at Atlanta after a last-lap pass on Honda’s Chase Sexton who was baulked by a backmarker.

Series leader Webb took third place to extend his series lead over Ken Roczen from 15 points at the start of the day to 22, as Roczen had a nightmare ride to a lowly ninth place. Tomac is still third, now 39 points behind the KTM man Webb.

At the start, it looked like Aaron Plessinger was going to take his first main even win. Yamaha man Plessinger looked incredible, taking the holeshot and pulling away consistently to a six second lead from Webb and Sexton. With seven minutes to go, Plessinger slid out and Sexton whipped past Webb in the whoops to take the lead.

The pass seemed to throw Webb’s concentration off, allowing Tomac to sneak up on him and easily slide by. Webb could only watch as Tomac set off in chase of leader Sexton, setting the fastest laps on the track as Webb fell back to a distant third.

Tomac reeled in the leader, getting within around a second as the two-lap board went out. Sexton was then held up by a lapper, which allowed Tomac to blast by and take the lead. Sexton looked up as he couldn’t make a double and Tomac sailed overhead as the pair entered the final lap. Sexton cruised home for second.

Tomac said: “I came in here with a good mindset. This track suited me tonight. It was a beast! And I made up good time in the whoops.”

Sexton said: “It was a challenge having to get by Cooper. Aaron went down and got me into the lead. I put a good pace in but was struggling in the whoops. It was a big push for me. I’m looking forward to coming back and trying to get the top spot.”

Webb said: “I wasn’t pumped with that ride. I got a good start and was in a good situation. Those guys got around me and pulled away. I’m a little bummed as I didn’t adjust to the track. To gain points is always good on your bad days.”

Roczen was 19th off the start and began to quickly work through the pack until he got to ninth, then couldn’t move forward any more and got involved in a battle for ninth with Plessinger, Joey Savatgy, Marvin Musquin and Dylan Ferrandis. Ferrandis eventually took fifth place from Plessinger, Musquin, Savatgy and Roczen who was one place in front of Justin Barcia. Barcia crashed hard in his heat and was detuned for the night.

Briton Max Anstie had a great start but crashed hard and was taken away for medical checks on the second lap. His wife later said on social media that he was not badly injured, luckily.