First, Tomac addressed the elephant in the room: the long-time competitor of the factory KTM team is now in fact on that exact team. Most notably, Tomac raced against Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey, Marvin Musquin, and Cooper Webb. Tomac and Dungey—and Musquin—battled for the 2017 450SX Monster Energy AMA Supercross title, then Tomac and Musquin went back-and-forth the following year again, although Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson won the title. Then, Tomac and Webb battled in from 2019 through 2023 when the #2 was on KTM. Webb got the best of Tomac in 2019, but the following year the then-Kawasaki-backed Tomac captured the title. Webb was back on top in 2021 before Tomac switched to Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing for 2022 and eventually won both the 450SX Supercross and 450 Class AMA Pro Motocross Championship title that year.
“To be completely honest, I've been a fierce competitor of this race team that I've now joined for the upcoming 2026 season,” Tomac said. “But at the same time, I've had this curiosity about Ian [Harrison], Roger [De Coster], this whole race team and this organization. So, it's an exciting time for me, even though you could say I'm in the twilight of my career, it's very refreshing. And I'm just looking forward to what's to come. And this whole group is very committed to racing.”
So, what was it like for Tomac to first arrive at the new, state-of-the-art KTM headquarters in California?
“Yeah, I the first time I drove up to this place, you see the grounds and all the buildings, and you're just completely blown away by the race shop, and then you realize like it's for dirt bikes,” he said, “and it's the commitment to it, it's awesome. Yeah, and then we’ve got the test tracks right here, right down the road. I like just looking at this bike: it's a beautiful race bike, so, yeah, let's get this thing going.”
Then, he commented on the switch from that Star Racing program to the KTM squad.
“Yeah, of course it is, I mean, anytime you make a switch, but now it's been a couple of days,” he said. “But, hey, this is the new team, and it's feeling good, and we're excited to see what we can do!”
The big question was how quickly will Tomac adapt to the steel frame KTM after spending his entire pro career on aluminum frames?
“So, it's my first time on a steel frame big bike, and of course it feels different,” Tomac confirmed. “I would say for me, the first time I rode it, it kind of just feels like there's an extra G on the bike. It's more planted to the ground. The other positive thing I like about this motorcycle is for me, it fits me really well. Like the triangle of the bike feels good. Foot pegs, bars, seat, just that connection to the bike is very, very fitting to me. So, it's been a nice transition to getting comfy.”
And in that, how would he adjust to the unfamiliar hydraulic clutch? Well, it looked like there was a cable clutch on Tomac's new KTM. The 450cc KTM machine has come stock from the factory with a hydraulic clutch for years now, and Tomac has been using a cable clutch on his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing machine since the start of the 2022 season. But it is now confirmed that Tomac does indeed have a familiar cable clutch system on his KTM 450 SX-F Factory Edition bike for ‘26.
“To be completely honest, I was very surprised to see that option that these that this team made available was that cable clutch. And for me, I've been a cable guy my whole life. I've had a couple seasons where I've basically been forced to ride a hydraulic and I could never make it as good as I wanted it to, basically. And for my riding style, it's just the way I ride specifically on supercross and the way I slip out of turns and say up a steep ramp face for my technique, and also the whoops, I haven't been able to find a hydraulic that can do what a cable can do. And this team made me a cable clutch system.”
Tomac will make his KTM debut at the Canadian GP round of the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) on November 15 up north across the border in Vancouver.
Watch Cudby's full video with Tomac, Jorge Prado, Plessinger, and Julien Beaumer below.
