The Proud Warrior

Tomac is now 32 years old, and Motocross of Nations marked what should be his final race with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing. Under those circumstances, a lot of riders find reasons to not even race an event like this, but Eli showed up for the second year in a row for a squad compromised by injury. Last year, Team USA doesn’t even race the Motocross of Nations if not for Eli Tomac. Chase Sexton broke his hand at the SMX Final in Las Vegas, leaving the squad in the lurch with an overseas racing upcoming. Getting a rider to commit to Ironman Raceway at the last moment is tough, but England? That’s tougher. Also, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing and Team USA had to spend buckets of money to fly bikes to the event, with Cooper Webb a late fill-in for Chance Hymas on a 250 and Tomac in for Sexton on a 450. In England, the team rode well as underdogs, Tomac even holeshotting an all-time stacked final moto and finishing third, enough for Team USA to finish a close second.

This year Tomac wasn’t a fill-in choice, he was on the original team as the Open rider next to Sexton, who was scheduled for the MXGP class. Tomac slid over to MXGP once Sexton was out, the only difference being a change in number (at the SMX final, Tomac ran a #6 with Team USA colors in Friday practice but raced with #4 at the MXoN). Would a Sexton/Deegan team probably be stronger than a Cooper/Hampshire team? Well, consider this: that was the original team! That was what everyone agreed would be the A unit! This was a scramble, and while the effort of Cooper and Hampshire was commendable, Team USA ended up second again.

Tomac’s final moto of the day, second overall behind Hunter Lawrence, was darned good, too.

“Today, personally, I went for it too,” said Tomac. “I felt like I improved my riding every time on the track this weekend. To be totally honest, I was struggling a little bit yesterday on the qualifying day, but today, I was much better in the motos and was pretty happy with my riding.”

Jett Lawrence crashed early in moto three and came through the pack. From 16^th, he made his way past all the challengers in front of him save two: his brother, and Eli. Tomac took the checkers second, not enough to win the event, but enough for Team USA to finish as runner up. He was also the only rider to finish ahead of a Lawrence all weekend. It was a valiant effort.

Tomac could get another shot at the MXoN next year, which would be great, but as of now this proud warrior still has just one MXoN victory, from RedBud in 2022. He missed a few shots in his Monster Energy Kawasaki years, but he’s been giving it his all in the latter years. Win or lose, he’s giving Team USA all he can.