P144
INTERVIEW
PRO MOTOCROSS 450MX CHAMPION ELI TOMAC
O
n Saturday afternoon, August 26, 2017,
Monster Energy Kawasaki racer Eli
Tomac flashed across the finish line at
Ironman Raceway in Crawfordsville, Indiana
to complete the second and final moto of the
AMA Pro Racing season, and upon doing so,
fulfilled a lifelong dream of winning a 450cc
class championship. 2017 was something of
a torrid racing year for the 24-year-old from
Colorado, replete with dramatic ups and downs
and moments that could be, depending on the
day, triumphant or heartbreaking. Nonetheless,
in his eighth year of professional racing, he kept
pushing and kept punching, losing one title by
way of an ill-timed miscue in New Jersey and
winning another by keeping to the plot both he
and Kawasaki had meticulously crafted and
fine-tuned as the months went by.
"I would say that other than Supercross,
where we barely missed that championship, it
has been a year of a lot more ups than downs,"
said Eli Tomac a few days after the running of
the 2017 Monster Energy Cup, which is where
and when the interview you are about to cast
your eyes upon took place. "It was a very positive
year and we were happy with everything and all
of our teams worked well together. Everything
went smoothly the whole year. And to win the
450MX championship is what I've dreamed of
and what I've looked up to as a kid. Getting a 450
championship is the top pedestal of the sport. It
was great for us to get it done and 2017 will be
an awesome year to look back on."
TOMAC
