Four-time Supercross champion, Ryan Villopoto, and five-time Supercross champion, Ricky Carmichael, have weighed in with they view on what is happing with Eli Tomac who has admitted himself he is in a bit of a mid-season slump but denies there is any injury!
Interestingly, on their podcast Title 24, RV said: “Definitely not the same Eli that we saw at the beginning of the seaso. And you (RC) made a point of saying , I think it was Ian and the boys at KTM saying when he (Eli) was on a different manufacturer we (KTM) saw and based off data that you know his late to mid-season…it was a lull for Eli you know? And that’s when they would expect to make up some points – and obviously that’s kind of exactly what’s happening now.”
On bike set-up issues RV said he has been down that road of changing the bike mid-season and it not working out: “I couldn’t tell you how many times I did that, where we’d get into a situation we thought we were going down this road of better and it could maybe be at the end of a week of testing, it could have been at the end of two weeks of like where we’ve been working down this direction, and then, either not being happy with it or or just second-guessing, ‘is this better than what we had?’ And then we would build our old setting if it was fork/shock/linkage. Whatever that package was that we did have success on, we’d throw it on and then I’d go out and ride and make a definitive decision at that point.”
RC concurred saying he had done the same thing: “I mean I did it in 05. We thought we brought a better engine package at Daytona time, and learned quick, like within two races, this ain’t cutting it. So we went back to our home base.“
RC then said: “Now, compared to what it was like those first few rounds to Daytona to him right now. In my opinion RV, he’s very reactive to the bike rather than proactive with his style. He doesn’t look like he’s in the attack position as much as he was at the beginning. He looks like he’s waiting – like there’s uncertainty with the bike and waiting for it to do something rather than him knowing what it’s gonna do.“
Watch the full segment below:
