Two stories for Eli Tomac at Arlington: he announced he will now race a full season in 2023, saying he will return to the AMA Pro Motocross Championship and race the new SMX World Championship in September. There’s also the story of the Arlington race itself. Tomac won the first Triple Crown race, had a so-so second race (fourth) then led the final race. Then he crashed! Not quite the same after that, Tomac ended up sixth, and the 1-4-6 scores left him third overall. Title rivals Cooper Webb and Chase Sexton closed up a bit, and this is now the closest series ever between three riders after seven rounds.
Tomac hit those topics after the race.
After you fell you dropped off the pace a little bit. Was it the track conditions or were you banged up or anything like that?
Eli Tomac: Yeah, I was fine I was just knocked a little bit out of rhythm. And then to be honest I was really slow on the dragon’s back, I didn’t realize how fast that inside was and then I got passed by Kenny [Roczen] and then AP [Aaron Plessinger] was making time up on me right there. So, frustrating mistake, losing both wheels on the landing of that tunnel jump.
That outside gate pick for the start, can you take us through the logic of that, with that inside lefthand turn.
Yeah, I just didn’t want any part of that inside. The way that I felt it squeeze in the practice start, I was like two inside of the doghouse and I even felt like there was a bit of risk over there. So I slid outside of the doghouse, as you saw, and there was a really good rut and I just kept taking it. It was like three outside of the doghouse. It worked out being out there, yup.
Congratulations on announcing the extension. Does that take some mental pressure off of it? Do you stop thinking about it, does it make fighting for this championship any easier?
Umm maybe a tiny bit, but it was a pretty easy decision. My game plan was to come into these first few races and kind of see how things were going. Thankfully Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing gave me that option, to be able to say, 'Hey if you want to go for outdoors, you can do it.' So, it wasn’t really a nagging thing going on it was just, 'Yeah, let’s keep racing.'
Back in race one you were doing that rhythm line where you were jumping over the first turn. You made a mistake once and you went away, just explain why you sort of went away from that after race one.
Well, it was good for basically three laps and then the rut just…we were trying it on press day and if there was a rut there at all you couldn’t get the lift to get across it, so that was it. The rut deteriorated and I wasn’t able to do it, so I bailed on that line. It was a cool line though while it lasted.
Is this the pattern that we can expect for the rest of the year? The three of you fighting for it and seeing who can make the fewest mistakes? And then the mistakes that are there, is it because you guys are so tight pushing each other so much?
I mean it will be interesting to see. Has there ever been three guys this close at round seven? I don’t know. But you know obviously we have been setting ourselves apart and it's cool to see but the pressure is on at the same time.
