{"id":29847,"date":"2024-01-06T18:06:21","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T01:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-a-devastating-injury-eli-tomac-is-ready-to-reclaim-his-title-in-2024\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:05:09","slug":"after-a-devastating-injury-eli-tomac-is-ready-to-reclaim-his-title-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/after-a-devastating-injury-eli-tomac-is-ready-to-reclaim-his-title-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"After a devastating injury, Eli Tomac is ready to reclaim his title in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Eli
Eli Tomac prepares for the 450cc Supercross at Empower Field at Mile High on May 6, 2023, in Denver. (Star Racing Yamaha)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Eli Tomac is ready to start racing again.<\/p>\n

After a devastating injury at the Round 16 Denver Supercross race in May, Tomac is back on the bike and ready to reclaim his 2022 title as 450SX champion, starting with the season-opening race on Saturday in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

Before becoming injured, Tomac won seven of the 16 races he competed in during the 2023 Supercross season. He was on the podium for another four races.<\/p>\n

Over the past nine months, Tomac, 31, has been preparing to race again after rupturing his Achilles tendon in Denver. After landing wrong on the track\u2019s triple jump, Tomac was forced to forfeit the race and the Supercross championship title along with it, coming in second to competitor Chase Sexton.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that moment, it was the worst thing that you could imagine,\u201d Tomac said Friday in an interview with The Journal<\/em>. \u201cI was in a position where I just needed to finish the race. And I was leading the race at that time and I had the championship in my control. I didn\u2019t finish the race, I got injured and that was it. So that was one of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever had to go through as an athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Eli
Eli Tomac, shown in an official photo for Star Racing Yamaha, returns to racing tonight in Anaheim, California, for the start of the 2024 Supercross season.
\n(Star Racing Yamaha)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

At first, Tomac said he struggled with a lot of frustration surrounding the events of the race and his subsequent injury before buckling down on therapy so he could race again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI initially was basically angry at the world and just really frustrated about the scenario and how it went down. In our sport, you put those G forces on your body and in those situations, things like that can happen,\u201d Tomac said. \u201cA ruptured Achilles is one of the hardest injuries to come back from.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the boots riders wear also lend support to the lower body to help prevent injury, but after rupturing his Achilles, he modified his boot to receive more protection and support.<\/p>\n

\"Tomac
Tomac said he was able to begin riding again in October. (Feld Motor Sports, Inc.\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In October, Tomac was able to get back on the bike, about six months after the injury. While he wasn\u2019t able to do the intense kind of riding he was accustomed to, he was permitted to ride on flat tracks to begin getting some conditioning back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t allowed to put myself in a high G-force situation,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was more flat riding, and I was riding a dirt track and basically just staying on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a few weeks of flat riding, he was able to begin riding over jumps and begin slowly conditioning himself to Supercross riding.<\/p>\n

Ahead of his first race back, it was easy Friday to hear the excitement and anticipation in Tomac\u2019s voice as he shared his goals for the first race post-injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal at the first race is the podium, to come out here with good points so I can kind of see where I\u2019m at,\u201d Tomac said. \u201cThere are so many variables in the first race, and you learn so much in a race environment, but me personally, I\u2019ve always shot for the podium as my expectation here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomac also expressed his goals for the season as a whole, setting his intention to win what had been lost last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to win the championship,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s an unrealistic expectation for how my foot feels and the strength of my Achilles and how I\u2019ve been riding. I\u2019m riding at the same level that I was last year, in the opinion of my trainer and my team around me. So my expectation is the same as it was the year before. Win races and go for the championship. I wouldn\u2019t be lining up if I didn\u2019t think I could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the opener in Anaheim, Tomac will not only be racing familiar competitors like Cooper Webb and 2023 champion Chase Sexton, but will race for the first time against new 450 class racers Jett and Hunter Lawrence. Jett Lawrence went 22-0 to win last year\u2019s 450 Motocross title during his first season after moving up from the 250MX class. Hunter Lawrence joins the field after winning the 250MX title.<\/p>\n

After mentioning Jett Lawrence\u2019s \u201cphenomenal\u201d season, Tomac said, \u201cOne thing\u2019s for sure in this sport is that it\u2019s very competitive, and it gets stronger and stronger every year for the racers in the 450 class. There\u2019s eight to 10 guys, in my opinion, who could win a race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tomac
Tomac crosses the finish line to win a championship race. (Feld Motor Sports, Inc.\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When asked about his advice for young people in Cortez who look up to him as a hometown hero and as someone who accomplished a big dream in a small town, Tomac emphasized the importance of pursuing dreams and passions.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust believe in yourself, and whatever you\u2019re passionate about, go for it,\u201d he said. \u201cI think all the successes and good outcomes will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is to chase whatever your passions are and what you\u2019re motivated to do, and it basically makes you limitless. Just go for it; it doesn\u2019t matter where you come from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During the Round 1 news conference<\/a> Friday afternoon, a reporter asked Tomac if he thought the \u201cforced time off\u201d had helped extend his career, rather than shorten it because of the injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I decided to go racing again, my neck stopped hurting, my back stopped hurting, so I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m back, I\u2019m fresh, I\u2019m ready to go again.\u2019 It may have extended a season or so, but I\u2019m just taking it by this season right now,\u201d Tomac said, adding that he is only signed up for the Supercross season so far.<\/p>\n

\"Tomac
Tomac addressed reporters during a news conference on Friday in Anaheim. (Screen Capture via Supermotocross YouTube)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Tomac, who races with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing, will ride as No. 3 this season.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the outlook of Tomac\u2019s 2024 season, his team said, \u201c2024 is much of the same for Eli Tomac, same team, same bike, same support system that gave him his 2022 title. The challenge now is putting his gruesome 2023 season-ending injury behind him and charging forward with a clean slate and new motivation. The field in 2024 is one of the deepest and most talented this sport has ever seen, young rookie talent to veteran champions like Eli and Cooper Webb coming head-to-head in what will shape up to be a historic season of racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomac went pro in 2010, becoming the only rider in the history of the sport to win his professional debut, according to information provided by team Yamaha. He is currently ranked second place on the all-time Supercross win list with 51 wins, behind Jeremy McGrath, \u201cthe king of Supercross,\u201d with 72 wins.<\/p>\n

He is also the 2020 and 2022 450SX Supercross champion, four-time AMA Pro Motocross 450 class champion (2017-2019, 2022), 2019 Monster Energy Cup runner-up (2015, 2017 and 2019), 450SX class championship runner-up, 2018 Monster Energy Cup $1 Million Race winner and 2016 Monster Energy Cup champion.<\/p>\n

Tomac will race in Anaheim for the 450SX season opener at 5:30 p.m. Mountain time on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

racer will race in Anaheim at the Supercross opener Saturday evening <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,162,28,29,346,447],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-eli-tomac","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-sports","tag-supercross"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80883,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29847\/revisions\/80883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29847"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}