Vintage Vibes: Vurbmoto’s “Epic” ft Eli Tomac and Kyle Engle

I saved this bit of “Epic”-ness for the offseason! It’s been 12 years since this footage was filmed and I can’t believe it’s been that long. This week for Vintage Vibes, I, Troy Dog, have chosen the Eli Tomac and Kyle Engle segments from Chili Dog’s feature film Epic.

This video goes down as one of my top five Vurb videos of all time. With a kajillion videos to choose from in the vurbmoto vault that’s pretty damn impressive! 

I remember when the crew originally teased the Engle footage. They posted a raw clip and the crash and some of the aftermath. I thought that he was seriously hurt or even worse off at the time, which I understand now wouldn’t be allowed to happen. As a dumb high school kid I was in awe. 

I don’t remember why Engle quit racing. You would have to ask Chili Dog that question. His last year at Loretta’s was in 2009 and he raced the A/Pro Sport classes with a lot of DNF/DNS/ and a random 15th thrown in the mix. Engle never raced a pro motocross or supercross race.

It was cool to see him decked out as a Red Bull athlete and those Honda’s were so cool to me at the time. Engle was our bro here at Vurb. It seems like he quit a few months before I came along at the end of 2009.

Eli Tomac on the other hand, is still a trending topic every single day in this sport. If you were to drive up to his Ranch in Colorado I know we could recreate this video with him on his Blu Cru. He’s just up there grinding lap after lap and then he’s going to fix a fence when he’s done…or something farmy like that. 

I dig this song, which is RJD2 “Ghostwriter”. It was my ringtone on my old Envy 2 phones. The entire vibe of Tomac’s part is so perfect because he doesn’t talk and just rides, which as we found out is accurate. This video was one of, if not the first, of Tomac on his Factory Connection Honda ride. He would go onto race Loretta Lynn’s and Mini O’s in 2009 and the Texas two-step at Lake Whitney and Oak Hill before winning the overall at Hangtown–his pro debut. 

Since then we’ve all watched Tomac become an all-time great. I personally think it all started with the filming of this video. It gave him the confidence to go out and win for 12 straight years. 

Chili Dog built a mansion off of the earnings that he made from Epic–or something like that. It’s the same square footage as his old house. Either way, it was a massive success and you can still buy a copy here in the Vurb Shop. Should Chili make another feature length movie?

Written by Troy Dog

Faster than Slaw Dog. Editor-in-Chief

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