Defending 450MX champion Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Kawasaki) stood atop the podium for the first time in the 2020 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship at Ironman Raceway, as Jeremy Martin (Geico Honda) won moto two and took his second-successive 250 Class overall. Both riders spoke to the media post-race via Zoom press conferences.

Eli Tomac

You came into the weekend in a really unfamiliar position for you, especially in recent years, and you faced a big deficit in points, but you returned and you kind of were the Eli we’ve all come to expect the last three years or so. Are you back where you think you should be to start getting back into this title fight?

I felt like it was my only option, right, to stay in this was to be on the podium and being in front of Zach, he’s got such a big points lead right now, so that was my only goal into the weekend, was like, ‘man, I’ve got to at least win a moto and be in front of Zach’. That’s the way it went. Loretta’s was obviously unfortunate and just the way that mud was, crazy things can happen in those scenarios… Like the double DNF really sucked. Luckily the first moto, it was on the white flag, right, so I was able to get ninth, but trying to look past that now and hoping that we can keep this going. Yeah, we did do a little bit of testing in California, but that was a whole other deal, but always searching, trying never to settle.

We didn’t get to talk to you obviously after last week, but what goes through your mind when you start feeling that bike give away? How frustrated after the moto were you?

Yeah, it was frustrating. Moto one, I actually felt it going, probably three laps before it actually stopped. It even stalled once or twice and then it finally gave out. Moto two though, it was out of nowhere, so that was a little bit sketchy. Those bikes just got so hot and then the mile an hour wasn’t very fast there – it was a combination of a little bit of everything. The thing just overheated, so, super-frustrating, but some things are just out of your power and you can’t do anything about it. Just frustrating as heck.

And this weekend in moto two, it looked like it started smoking towards the end there. Were you losing power at all?

No, no power [loss]. I mean, you might have seen something, but it was fine that way. It wasn’t too sketchy.

Onto Ironman there, what’s that battle like in, really both motos, to be honest? The competition seems nuts in this class and you still got to win, which you’ve done a lot of these past couple years, but was that one of the most intense battles you’ve had with [Justin] Barcia all over you there?

Moto one, I was just kind of following Marvin [Musquin] and the pace wasn’t, I mean maybe it was as fast, but it was just different. Moto two, when you have that carrot of the overall being right there and then Justin was right there with me the whole way, that pace was hot. That was a gnarly pace and we made it all the way to the end without slowing down, so that one was a massive effort. I’m actually a little bit sore this week compared to the mud race. The mud race was like, you can’t go out there and pin it and sprint, so I’m like here’s the nationals now, waking up Sunday. That was a fun race, but for sure, gave it our all.

What was your mental state in between rounds? Were you worried, like really bad, like ‘I don’t know if I can get back in this’ or were you able to take it one race at a time and were you not in panic mode too badly after round two?

Well, I’m in the postilion where I can’t have anything happen again, right, plus we’re a shortened series so that’s… the only thing I can do now is try to win. With Zach being, what was he at? He was at 40 points, like that’s a pretty far-fetched, but definitely not over yet. We pulled 13 points out of him in one weekend, so it’s good it’s still a little bit early in our short series, but man, if I’m going to get it done, I’ve kind of got to do it now.

I did hear you tested the bike a little bit. I know you weren’t pumped on some of the stuff you had at the very first moto of the season. Do you feel like you have things in a much better direction now?

Yeah. We did play around with the motorcycle a little bit, but I was never in a bad position. It’s just always kind of searching for something a little more.

When you do get that win, an intense moto, a race you really feel like you had to win, and keep Osborne behind you too, I mean, how did that feel to win it? You’ve won a lot, but I would think that meant a lot to get the win over the weekend.

It did mean a lot. It’s just, when you’re in that position, I always think of the last… When I’m in that position I’m like, ‘I don’t want to give this race up’, with say like three laps to go. Justin was all over me the whole time and that’s why we were pinned all the way to the end. We both wanted it and, man, it was crazy. It was crazy. We were both just pushing the whole way.

You obviously won your first Supercross championship earlier this year, so considering you’ve won three in a row outdoors, how important is it for you to get another title outdoors and would it make it that much more special considering there’s that possibility of winning the double?

It’d be very cool. When you have the number one plate, the last thing you want to do is give it up, so that’s been my motivation for it and that’s pretty much it. I don’t want to give this thing away, by any means.

Jeremy Martin

Jeremy, a good day for you, definitely what you were probably coming in looking to do today. Back-to-back wins for you and you’ve got the momentum right now, so talk through your day and let us know how it went.

For starters, I think just starting off with the day, it was really nice that it wasn’t going to downpour during the day, so that was a positive thing. The track, I couldn’t believe how muddy it was, I was like, ‘dang it, man’. Certain sections, I was pretty blown away. I think they got a little bit of rain, but they must have watered it. Either it was the rain or whatever, but it was watered pretty heavy. Third-fastest qualifier and then in moto one it was Dylan [Ferrandis] and I off the gate… He straight up smoked me. I got to give credit where credit is due, he was the better man in moto one, I was just trying to do what I could to learn from him at that point and locked up a second. Then I was like, ‘well, we’ll go into moto two and see if we can improve on it’ and got the holeshot. I didn’t actually know what happened to Dylan, but I just rode my race and raced forward and managed to gap over Justin Cooper and was able to go 2-1 for first overall.

You’ve won two races in a row now and you got your first moto win, so was this more for you or was it more for all the people that doubted you with your injury?

For sure, I’d say it’s mainly for me. When the injury went down, two of the three doctors that worked on me said I was nuts to come back and to even race and want to do that again. I went and got a part-time job to try to understand what real life was like. I’m sure everybody is kind of tired of the story, but I thought about what the next stage in life would be like for a long time. A lot of your friends and supporters that are there, when you’re doing well at the races and you’re winning, they disappeared, and I got a sense of what reality and real life is like. For sure, it’s for me – the win today was a big deal. Just trying to get better and dig myself out of that hole from the injury back in 2018.

With these back-to-back races coming up at RedBud next week, you having the momentum from two overalls but then this being an all-new challenge with so many races so close together, does anything change for that or is it just, ‘hey, it’s two more races, they just happen to be different days’?

For sure, I think it’s just two more races, different days. I would think everybody likes RedBud because it’s a pretty fun circuit and the dirt is pretty good. I honestly am into it, I like racing, banging those two races out right away, so just looking forward to it. I think the only thing that’s going to be a little bit different is just how I train during the week, just to give myself a little bit of a break and be just as recovered as I was going into this weekend as I would be for Friday, essentially, because it’s a day earlier. That’s all.

So far this year you’ve pretty much stayed with Dylan through consistency, but every time you guys have been together, he’s kind of gotten away from you. You being a veteran and kind of a student of the sport, what do you think needs to change for you to close that gap on Dylan?

For sure. The times that we have been around each other, he’s definitely had an edge on me and he’s been able to get away. For me, it’s a shorter series, but it is a longer series. I’m going to do what I can do – I can only control what I’m in control of. Dylan’s obviously a two-time Supercross champion, he’s really competitive and fast outdoors, but Dylan will do what Dylan is going to do and I’m going to do what I’m going to do. I’m going to focus on what I can do to be better every day. I won today, but obviously the guy beat me by 30 seconds in moto one, so, basically, I’ve got work to do. That’s kind of how I look at it.

With your bike, you talked about it being really fast. Last year everybody kind of lagged behind the Star bike, so do you feel like you guys have closed that gap?

We’re always trying. As I’m trying to get better, the team is trying to get better. I don’t want to say nothing that will put me in a situation… The team is just trying to get better and I’m trying to get better. I feel like we have gotten closer to them, but I still think that they’re the top for horsepower, they’re at that top bar. We’re just doing what we can to close that gap.

Kind of following up on that question from earlier. Do you think you would have reacted the same way years ago if you lose a moto by 25 seconds? Is this something you’ve learned to deal with better just because you’re a veteran and you kind of take it in stride and then it works out in moto two?

Yeah, I think it’s something I’ve learned through the years. Honestly, guys, I would attest a lot of it to just breaking my back. The deficit I was at and the stuff I had to overcome, for me, it opened my eyes up to a whole new world of just how mentally tough I can be. It just kind of like opened my mind to where I think it’s really helped benefit me from a professional athlete standpoint and being mentally strong and staying competitive, even though I did get beat by that much.

You talked about Dylan being faster and you got to just do what you can do, but what can you work on to make that little bit of difference?

It’s all the same stuff, the stuff that I work on every single day. Every day I get up, go to bed, I think about it. I think about how to be better. You don’t make these massive improvements overnight. You just go to work, you stay in the grind and you just work on the fundamentals and everything and just hope that you get that another two percent gain or whatever and the next weekend hopefully it shows off.