Eli Tomac took his last pre-race press conference stage ahead of his last ever professional race at the final round of the SMX world championship.
And the legend admitted that the first round mudder of the SMX series was a hard one for him to focus on because of his retirment announcement – and he expects it all to hit home when he finishes the final moto tomorrow night.
“The hardest part was making the decision initially, that was the most weight for me,” said and honest Eli. “Tomorrow when I come off in the second moto, of course it will hit hard. As a whole right now I have had this decision made and i am at peace with it. I am excited to go out here for the last one, man, this place looks so cool.
“Looking back at thes last two SMX races, the mud race was actually pretty tough and aI felt like I was kind of checked out at that race and in a bit of a protection mode. Last week my results were a little bit better but the mud race was pretty tough for me and I was not who I wanted to be at all, I was getting straight up smoked. That race was straight up hard, it was the first race after I made my announcement that I would be done after these three SMX races.”
Tomac was also asked about the longevity of his career and what era was he hat his best and the America said: “My best era I guess would be 2022, winning both significant titles and being able to get both done in the same, that was probably the best me as a whole. Then I look before that and probably 2017 to 2020, I definitely won the most Supercross races butI didn’t win the titles if I go 17 to 19.
For special moments, they all have their own chapters, when I think of my early 450 years, I was truly racing against my idols, so that was actually a hard thing to do, to be on the track with Chad Reed and James Stewart and then to try to beat them. Man, I looked up to these guys when I was a kid, that was a special moment, a hard moment to deal with and then you grow into yourself and those were the middle years of my career. Then you build rivalries with the rest of the competitors, I am kind of a dinosaur, I feel like I have gone through two or three generations (laughs) and now I am here. They are all special.”
It’s certainly going to be weird not seeing Eli behind a gate after all these years but he has had an amazing career and hopefully he can sign out in style this weekend!
