Eli Tomac is cloaked with a bit of an superhero image. His every day life, his process, and his motivations are a bit of a mystery, but he sure as heck provides the hero performance when needed.
Budds Creek 2024 saw Tomac shrouded in more mystery than ever, because it was a rare time of the five-time champion of Pro Motocross returning from a long injury layoff during the season. Tomac has been relatively healthy throughout his career, and when he’s had big ones, they were season enders. The thumb injury he suffered late in Monster Energy AMA Supercross stood in the middle. Bad enough to require surgery and time off, but not bad enough to end the season, especially since Eli still wants to compete in the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) Playoffs, the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX), and even the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations. Plus, he wants to build a fitness base for the 2025 season, hoping to improve on 2024, when he had only two months back on the bike before Anaheim 1.
Roll all of that up, and you get a rare Tomac-after-injury sighting. Was he ready for Budds Creek? Kind of. On Friday’s press day, he said he had a few weeks of 30-minute motos under his belt and his goal was to be around the podium spots. That’s exactly where he was early in the day, fourth best in qualifying and then fourth in the first moto. In that moto, he didn’t get a great start and tried to make tracks toward podium men Hunter Lawrence, Chase Sexton, and Aaron Plessinger. He couldn’t get there, but he was ahead of everyone else. If around the podium was a goal, fourth in moto one pretty met the standard.
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Then came moto two. A worse start, and that layoff left him without his usual energy reserves. He was buried and couldn’t come through in his old "Beast Mode" fashion. He finished 11th, and 4-11 scores meant seventh overall.
“Well a little bit of good and little but of misery there,” he said with a laugh to NBC Sports’ Jason Thomas. “First moto I was pretty happy with, got into a good groove, found some lines and finished fourth. The second one was tough. Was a little bit more buried on the start and just struggled to really go. Learned a lot today. Feels good to be back, though, even though that second one wasn’t so hot. I feel like I can still get there, thinking about that first moto.”
One would think moto two was merely a byproduct off all the race fitness lost by not riding for two months. Those things can be fixed with seat time. The first moto was encouraging.
“Moto 1 was good,” he said in a Yamaha statement. “I had a pretty good start, and although I got passed early, I was able to make those passes back. I got into fourth place and had some good lines and a good flow going, so I went into Moto 2 with a good mindset, but I was really buried off the start. I only made it up to 11th and just kind of struggled overall in that second moto. It is something to build on. Yeah, I wanted it to be better, but we’ll try to build on it and improve next weekend in Indiana.”
Tomac emerged from Budds healthy so he can get even better for Ironman. His Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Cooper Webb crashed last week in his own return from a thumb injury and suffered a sprain, knocking him back out of action. Just getting to Ironman is a win for Eli. As for the Team USA question, we hear the AMA can wait one more week to decide on the team, which means another look at Tomac in action in motocross form. Remember, Eli had not even raced Pro Motocross since 2022. He’ll have to be a quick study because Aaron Plessinger has been a podium rider every week lately and is making a great case to grab a second 450 slot alongside Chase Sexton. The AMA will have to try to guess how much better Eli could be by October, when MXoN takes place.
For now, it’s just good to see Eli Tomac back at whatever races he does get to do.
Budds Creek - 450
August 17, 2024| Rider | Hometown | Motos | Bike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Chase Sexton | La Moille, IL  | 2 - 1 | KTM 450 SX-F |
| 2 |  Hunter Lawrence | Landsborough, Australia  | 1 - 2 | Honda CRF450R |
| 3 |  Aaron Plessinger | Hamilton, OH | 3 - 3 | KTM 450 SX-F |
| 4 |  Malcolm Stewart | Haines City, FL | 6 - 5 | Husqvarna FC 450 |
| 5 |  Jason Anderson | Edgewood, NM | 5 - 6 | Kawasaki KX450SR |
| 6 |  Christian Craig | Temecula, CA | 7 - 8 | Husqvarna FC 450 |
| 7 |  Eli Tomac | Cortez, CO | 4 - 11 | Yamaha YZ450F |
| 8 |  Broc Tickle | Holly, MI | 9 - 10 | Kawasaki KX450SR |
| 9 |  Phil Nicoletti | Cochecton, NY | 8 - 12 | Yamaha YZ450F |
| 10 |  Justin Cooper | Cold Spring Harbor, NY | 20 - 4 | Yamaha YZ450F |
