Eli Tomac remains the points leader in Monster Energy AMA Supercross, a familiar postion regardless of if he's young or old, or if he's riding a Kawasaki, and Yamaha or a KTM. This transition has been quick and Tomac, now 33, looks as good as ever. This week ET joined Jamie "Darkside" Guida's MotoXPod show to chat about 2026 and beyond. You can read or watch below.
MotoXPod Show: Thank you for doing this. It's always a pleasure to have you on. What I'd like to start with is a question that I wanted to ask months ago, but we couldn't really ask just yet. But I want to know is when the time comes through your career to change teams, what factors go into play?
Eli Tomac: Who you're surrounding yourself with comes top of my mind, of course. Plus, do you believe in the motorcycle? Of course, as a rider, you have these certain goals and it's like, hey, can I, can this team meet those goals? So, there's a lot of aspects. Then of course there is money that comes into play as well, but of course the easiest way to make money is by winning. So, number one is you gotta surround yourself with people that you know you can work with. What's their track record? Do you believe that they'll give you what will make you capable of winning?
And with KTM, obviously when you talk about personnel, legendary guys like Roger De Coster and Ian Harrison and Jade Dungey's been around. How's that been?
It's honestly better than I even expected. We're all kind of on the same wavelength. We all kind of speak the same, understand each other the same way. And we there's just there's not a whole lot of ego going on or I don't know, it's just it's just we're in a good spot. They let us… we basically put everything to the test for the off-season. Going to different tracks, different environments and whatnot. And they were all about it. It's just it's been everything you could dream of, in my opinion.
We made a big deal maybe four years ago about how happy you seemed. But this latter part of your career really does seem to be just like you're really enjoying life and racing.
I am, as long as I'm staying on two wheels! You know, the last couple years have been a little tough [with injuries] and whatnot, but I'm having a ton of fun. I'm enjoying my time at the races. I love that basically the whole gate is turning into 30 plus class. I love proving people wrong, that 33 is still like, you can still totally do it. So that's amazing. And yeah, like there's the plus 30 guys haven't really tapered yet. So, it's awesome to see and physically like I'm probably in the best shape of my life. And I think because when you are at this age, you really are focused on your health and your well-being, but it definitely pays off. I love the age of 33.
Since you brought that up, I actually have that as something I want to touch on. You and Kenny, you're proving age doesn't really matter. I wonder if it's right now a situation of like, "Hey, I've got to just like clean up while I still can"? But I don't think that's the case. I don't think you have any end in sight!
Well, I mean, that's the thing is, it does comes down to mindset, of course. But yeah, if you're into it, if you're totally focused into what we do right now, we're proving that you can go to this age. It's awesome. I hope the young guys look at my generation right now and shoot for that goal, like having a 450 career as long as I've had. And I don't know where I'm taking this now, but yeah, it's just been great. It's been great to keep at it and keep winning races.
Yeah. At A1 Lewis Phillips and I were down on the floor there towards the end, and Lewis said, it's kind of crazy that Eli and Kenny in 2026 are battling for the lead and just crushing the rest of the guys. That's awesome. The sport is just an amazing place right now and you guys are at the top level, still.
Yeah. And that's just that comes down to like supercross just requires skill straight up. So, you know, we've we have the super high skill level and we're still good at it. And, you know, of course, Jett [Lawrence] is the man also. But we're still at like a level to where like no one's really kicking us out yet. So, it's pretty cool.
Yeah. I want to talk about the bike, the Austrian bike, the steel frame. On press day you talked about how much traction you're getting, and you obviously love this bike. What stands out the most?
I'll say the traction. I also really like the wheelbase on this bike. And then how usable the power is on this motor. For me it's got a very useful range and they've got my motor cranked up. The thing absolutely rips. Like the thing is so planted. I couldn't believe it when I first got on it, how much different that feeling was and how good my lean angle was. Into turns, I had this lean angle that I honestly haven't had for years and it's showing in my turns. Like I'm ripping my turns right now. So, man, I could go on and on. I've got a lot, a lot of positives to where I wake up in the morning and I'm stoked to ride this bike right now.
When you first said you wanted the cable clutch and they were like, yeah, no problem, was it eye opening>
Yeah. That made my jaw kind of dropped to the floor. It's like almost a joke because you're like, no way, but then they actually said that they would try to do it and make it, and then they did make it. They're committed. And they were able to do it. Here's the deal: we did a lot of testing back and forth. They got the hydraulic clutch to a really good feel. And honestly you could make it even softer than my current cable, the pull. But it still doesn't have that certain slip that I like to ride with. They got super close, but it's still just not quite a full-blown cable. At the end of the day, I'm just, you know, Mr. Cable.
When you got on it, where did you start from? Did you kind of start with what they had for Chase [Sexton] previously, or did you just start from like a base even before him.
I probably was. But of course, you know, us riders can kind of ride some of the same stuff, but once you start fine tuning that last five, 10 percent, you definitely kind of go off in your own direction, or at least I do. We had plenty of long test days. It wasn't like we got it on day one, but we never really had any hiccups or, you know, went the wrong way for the like. It was always just positive and and going the right way.
These first few races, you haven't really had to be beast mode. You've kind of been more steady mode, like consistent. You know, you're getting starts and like that hasn't been your style as far as the rest of your career. How has that been?
Well, outside of Triple Crown, you're right. I've had some sweet starts, especially in the mains, and I've been steady. I will say I was probably a little impatient in that second Triple Crown moto. Even before I went over the bars, I had a moment and a rhythm just across from that where I basically whiskey throttled, and I was just like, whoa, I need to calm down. I almost looped out in the middle of the lane. But yeah, I don't know, I've been putting myself close to the front, so I haven't had to have these crazy come from behind rides. Maybe Anaheim 2. I could have been a little bit better, but it was still solid ride. So, yeah, I'm, I'm happy with everything that's that's gone down so far.
You had to go to your backup bike for race three in Houston. Was that much different? Did you feel the differences in? Was that a little nerve wracking to know it was, you know, you hadn't rode that bike all night?
Yeah, it's nerve wracking as heck doing that! And me, I'm like crazy sensitive to my bars and my levers. But it ended up working out. And then, I don't know, I got a better start on that bike, but I also changed gates and I'm really bummed I didn't go to that inside gate those first two races. But anyway, you know, stuff happens and they made the bike very close, like, it was the same. I was able to do my thing. But I I'll be totally straight up: I was not happy that I had to move to bike number two because it's just hard. It's hard like, no matter what, some things feel a little bit different, but, hey, Jade did a good job. Everyone did a good job setting that thing up. It freaking worked!
You are aware that you're a bit of an intimidating guy? I'd have to assume. Do you feel that way? You're intimidating to me. Like when I go do an interview with you. I'm scared of you a little bit, Eli. I don't know why, but are you aware of that?
[Laughs] Yeah, I'm slightly aware.
Okay, so I asked my first question in press Friday, and I don't remember exactly. I think I just asked, did you expect to be this good? And instantly I was just off my game because you looked at me like I was an idiot. Of course, you thought you were going to be good. And then I just. Yeah. And then I'm like, okay, I feel stupid now. Are the rest of my questions stupid? How do I do this interview? But yeah, you're intimidating, dude.
Well, hey, that's… I don't know you can't show all your cards all the time! [Laughs]
Reader question here: Would you race an MXGP race? If so, what track do you think you would like to race?
At this stage, I'm not like chomping at the bit to go do a GP and then plus if I'm good enough here, you know, I get to do des Nations. Where's it going, Ernie? Yes. This year I'm hoping to be a top-two 450 guy and do that. But I'm not chomping at the bit right now to go do any extra, by any means. But I've always said I would like to go ride some sand tracks. I wish we had some deeper sand tracks on our nationals, but it's not like it's not high on my list to go do that at this point. The other thing I do have some ambition for, though, is like getting back into some enduro stuff or some longer distance stuff. Whatever. Hard enduro, more technical riding like, I think I would maybe go down that route after after the current supercross/motocross stuff. I always think, like, Erzberg. Super cool. I know a couple of guys have tried it, and I'm sure I'll get my butt kicked, but that's the stuff that I feel like I'm looking forward to after after the supercross stuff.
