Somehow it has happened again. Eli Tomac looked so close to his third Supercross title but injury has taken away his opportunity for yet another season. Last year, it was early in the season just after Jett Lawrence got hurt and, like Jett, Tomac didn’t even crash yet still broke his leg. In 2023, Tomac was minutes away from winning the title when his achilles ruptured.
Even when you are a champion and one of the legends in the sport who generally stays away from injury, this sport can still get you! It’s why it is the toughest sport in the world.
At the start of the 2026 season, Tomac was the guy to beat, he looked superb on the KTM and, right up until Daytona, it looked like Tomac’s title to lose. Tomac even overcame a month of subdued results with rumours of an injury to suffering from Covid all going around industry, only to look like he had bounced back at Nashville with P1 in qualifying and a heat race win. The championship was tied and Tomac had come out swinging with the scoop!
But; from that main event everything that could go wrong did. Eli got a terrible start then crashed in that main event to finish 12th, 15 points back, but he was still in it if he could win in Cleveland.
Once again, he was look fast in qualifying running in P2 in Q1 when the whoops crash happened and suddenly, everything he worked for since October, was gone in an instant. Between the Nashville main event and the very next time he was in competitive action, Tomac’s title hopes were over. It can happen that quickly and it’s a real shame for Tomac who has been extending his career year by year with the very realistic hope he can finally get that third Supercross title.
So what now? Will he even be back next year? Let’s hope so, because Tomac is still elite and showed some of the best speed in his career indoors this year on KTM.
With a week off this weekend and outdoors coming up, maybe Eli will come out swinging at Pala to show he isn’t done yet. There are a lot of questions without answers right now and maybe even Eli Tomac doesn’t have the answers yet.
Whatever happens in the next few months, his legacy is already secured and he only added to it with his speed on the KTM but, how his season ended, will still sting. It was another frustrating case of so close, yet so far from that coveted third Supercross title.
