INTERVIEW I 2022 CYCLE NEWS RIDER OF THE YEAR : ELI TOMAC
P78
Monster Energy Yamaha Star
Racing team was a huge plus
all throughout the 2022 racing
season. True?
Yeah, team camaraderie and
working together and who you're
working with is such a massive
factor. That's added into the
equation to the motorcycle and
to the training, to all of your tech-
nicians in the shop. You have to
have all of that going and that's
what leads to success.
The 2022 Monster Energy
Supercross series: new team,
new bike and all, how did you
feel going into the opening
round at Angel Stadium?
Going into 2022 Supercross,
of course, I felt like I was on
my A game. I actually thought I
was going to be better at Ana-
heim 1, and all I did at Anaheim
1 was learn a lot about where I
needed to be better. I was a little
bit off on my setting. Physically,
I came in really healthy. I had
one preseason crash that was
early on in December, but that
didn't really affect me much at
all. I was 100-percent going into
round one.
We did learn some things and
the bike did change from round
one to about round three. By
around four, I was on my setting
that I basically used for the rest of
the season. By round four, I really
was off to the races. So, after
that point, we were just rolling. In
the middle of the season, I had
five race wins in a row and, at
"TO GET BOTH THE
TITLES IN 2022, THAT
LITERALLY IS THE
DREAM, AND WE MADE
IT HAPPEN. I MUST SAY
THAT THE MOTOCROSS
TITLE WAS REALLY
SPECIAL; IT LITERALLY
WAS DOWN TO THE LAST
MOTO. EVERYTHING
WAS ON THE LINE."
Tomac (3) had to deal with several heavy hitters in both the Supercross and Motocross
Championships, such as Ken Roczen (94) and Jason Anderson (21).
