With the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship kicking off this weekend, MX Sports hosted several preseason activities yesterday to get riders in front of the media, including a ride day at Fox Raceway at Pala and a Zoom press conference a few hours later for top riders in both the 250 and 450 Classes. Several title contenders were in the two respective press conferences, including 2021 Lucas Oil 450 Class Pro Motocross Champion Dylan Ferrandis and 2022 450SX Champion Eli Tomac. The two Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammates were asked about their injuries—Ferrandis injured his wrist in the middle of supercross and took the remainder of the season off in order to recover fully for his title defense, and Tomac suffered an MCL injury to his knee at the Atlanta Supercross mid-April and sat out the finale after clinching the title one round early—and more ahead of the opener. With his jammed wrist, Ferrandis took a few weeks off the bike as he pulled out of the remainder of supercross but has been training with the Star team for several weeks in order to defend his title. Although he skipped the riding session yesterday, Tomac said his knee is about 90 percent and it does not bother him while he is riding. Here is what the Yamaha duo had to say during the press conference.
Dylan Ferrandis, a wrist injury kept you out of the last few supercrosses, how are you feeling physically coming into this?
Dylan Ferrandis: I feel good, thanks for asking. Yeah, that wrist injury was nothing crazy, but it took me awhile to feel…like I could ride after a couple of weeks but it’s just the pain was always there for a long time. I think it got back to normal since only two or three weeks. It was a small injury but very bothering. But now it’s all good and it's ready for the motocross.
Hey Eli, how is the knee feeling and how are you feeling heading into this championship?
Eli Tomac: It’s made good ground and improvement, and healing, I would say I am pretty close to 90 percent. To where I basically don’t feel it at all while riding, I would have to catch it in a weird way for it to be an issue. But it’s been strong at home the past two or three weeks it’s been making good progress. And I was definitely lucky to be able to take off Salt Lake [City] there and let it heal for a few more days and slowly work back into the motos.
And really quick what are your thoughts heading into your first Pro Motocross championship on the Yamaha, how are you feeling about the bike, do you have a good set up after a few days testing so far?
Tomac: Yeah, obviously Dylan had a good platform last year and this bike seems to be totally fine in motocross if not better and an easier start even compared to supercross. So, I think we are going to be right in the game right away. It’s been really nice.
Dylan, you missed the last few supercross rounds and now you are back for Pro Motocross, obviously totally different types of disciplines of racing but, these other guys have continued to race where you have been off the track, off the bike for a little bit, so is there kind of an extra fire that’s been lit under you now that you have had to sit on the sidelines for a little bit or what’s your mindset coming into Pala?
Ferrandis: Yeah, for sure I saw everybody riding during supercross and I wasn’t able to finish the season, so for sure I missed that. But at the same time, it’s a new season, all the points are back to zero, everybody’s reset so I think it’s important to do a little bit like last year, step by step, weekend by weekend. And don’t try to win, to absolutely win the first round. It doesn’t even matter it’s a long championship, so I think my main motivation is just to keep this number one plate. You know I worked so hard for it I just want to keep it and try to ride the best I can, nothing crazy or any crazy motivation, I just want to be the best of myself and try to win again this championship.
Watch the full preseason 450 Class press conference below:
Main image by Spencer Owens
