Slaw
Well, this snuck up on everyone. Eli Tomac will finish what undoubtedly will be a Hall of Fame career tomorrow at the SMX World Championship Finale.
Tomac’s career accomplishments are right there along some of the all-time greats. Four 450 Pro Motocross titles, two 450 Supercross titles, 57 career 450SX wins (second all-time), 32 career 450 Pro Motocross wins (fourth all-time) and one time 250SX and MX champ. Yep, that’s a very, very long list.
Ahead of the finale, Tomac spoke about what tomorrow will feel like and reflected on his career.
“No, it doesn’t feel any different. The hardest part was making the decision initially, that was the most weight for me,” he said. “Tomorrow, when I come off in the second moto, of course it will hit hard. As a whole right now, I have had this decision made and I am at peace with it. I am excited to go out here for the last one, man. This place looks so cool.”
Asked if he was in race-mode ahead of the finale, Tomac said: “Right now, my brain is pretty race mode. Like, I just feel like its another one.”
While he said he’s in race-mode for the final race, he did admit the mud race in Columbus was tough and that he was “kind of checked out”.
“Looking back at these last two SMX races, the mud race was actually pretty tough and I felt like I was kind of checked out at that race and in a bit of a protection mode,” he said. “Last week my results were a little bit better but the mud race was pretty tough for me and I was not who I wanted to be at all, I was getting straight up smoked. That race was straight up hard, it was the first race after I made my announcement that, hey, I am going to be done after these three SMX races.”
When asked what he felt his “best era” of racing was, Tomac said: “My best era I guess would be 2022, winning both significant titles and being able to get both done in the same, that was probably the best me as a whole. Then I look before that and probably 2017 to 2020, I definitely won the most Supercross races butI didn’t win the titles if I go 17 to 19.
“For special moments, they all have their own chapters,” he continued. “When I think of my early 450 years, I was truly racing against my idols, so that was actually a hard thing to do, to be on the track with Chad Reed and James Stewart and then to try to beat them. Man, I looked up to these guys when I was a kid, that was a special moment, a hard moment to deal with and then you grow into yourself and those were the middle years of my career. Then you build rivalries with the rest of the competitors, I am kind of a dinosaur, I feel like I have gone through two or three generations (laughs) and now I am here. They are all special.”
Congrats on a great career, Eli!
Watch the full pre-race press conference below:
