VOL. 50 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 10, 2013
P51
Tomac (center) says
he's looking forward to
competing in this year's
Motocross of Nations for
the first time.
that hump?
I think it was after
Budds Creek. I won
the second moto, and
then after that I was
just kind of sick of myself for not putting two
motos together.
Q: You did seem
legitimately pissed
off after that race.
Yeah, I was just over
it. I was over being first
in this moto and then
fourth or third in the next
one. So, that's when I worked on
my starts. I've been working on
my starts like crazy. Even though
they don't really show, they're at
least consistently top-seven or
top-five, and that can cut it for me
right now to go out there and win.
Sometimes I'd start like 15th and
I'd just be totally done-zo.
Q: That's a lot more effort,
too, when you only have an
hour between motos and you
work that hard in the first one.
It's way easier on your body,
and mentally, too, when you go
out there and you have clean air.
Q: Well, "clean air" for you
is like seventh.
It is! [Laughs] I'm like, "Hey, I
can see the front!"
Q: Your teammate Wilbur
[Hahn] holeshots almost every moto, and it's funny because, for a long time, we
WHEN YOU'RE ON
"OF NATIONS, YOU'RETHE MOTOCROSS
THE BADDEST
GUY IN THAT COUNTRY; THE RADDEST,
FASTEST DUDE.
"
were all saying, "Eli needs to
get two good starts," but in reality your starts haven't been
spectacular even when you
were winning. They were okay,
but it kind of just stopped mattering that you didn't start in
the top three because you'd
win anyway.
Yeah, and that happened
somewhere in the middle of the
season when we did make a
suspension change that really
helped me. But also, just getting
those couple wins was big and
confidence just builds and builds
and builds.
Q: You start to believe you
belong out front all the time.
Yeah. You don't want to say it,
but it just gets easier and easier
and easier.
Q: It's all mental. There are
lots of guys, potentially, who
can go as fast as Eli Tomac
does, but you have this in your
head where you're like, "I belong in the front, so by the end
of the race, that's where I'm
going to be."
[Laughs] Yeah, it's true. Totally.
Q: Did you recognize when
that started happening?
Well, I think at Washougal is
when it happened; when it really
clicked for me. I was like, "Man, I
