Tomac The Beast!!

After the 2024 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, we were left wondering if we had missed the opportunity see a peak Eli Tomac race a peak Jett Lawrence. Tomac showed very few flashes of “beast mode,” and was clearly in a rebuild mode coming back from his Achilles injury. Meanwhile, Lawrence established himself as the man to beat, and although he did not dominate points wise, showed the ability to dominate races and have unmatchable speed, even with some to spare. It seemed as though Eli’s freak injury may have robbed us watching these two generational riders dueling at peak performance.

Fast forward January 18, 2025, inside of Snapdragon Stadium, in San Diego, California where we finally got what thought we may never get. A mano a mano battle.

Eli Tomac has been so great for so long that when he isn’t winning, we resort to speculating, guessing, and wondering what the issue might be. Eli doesn’t make excuses and rarely spills the info. We spent a dozen years analyzing a few Eli “weirdo” rides only to find out it’s as simple as bike setup—if he feels like the back of his bike is too low, he pulls on the handlebars too hard and gets arm pump. It was that simple all along.

In 2024, Eli returned from a brutal Achilles tendon rupture. He was out on the track and even snagged a win at the St. Louis Supercross Triple Crown, but it was far from his normal, previous level. Was he finally getting old? Was he afraid to risk it with a wife and kids at home? Had he accomplished enough and no longer had that last one percent?

Nope. He just wasn’t quite fit yet! He needed an entire year to build back from that injury. By the end of 2024, he could go fast, lead laps and win sprint races, but holding strong to the end was the last piece of the puzzle, the one that took the longest to finally get. The San Diego Supercross, where he held off defending Monster Energy AMA Supercross Champion Jett Lawrence in a nail-biting battle, was symbolic. Eli was back on the track last year. But Eli was not actually back until this year.

 

The real Eli Tomac has returned in 2025.Align Media

“This is a huge win to just prove I’m in a better place than last year, and in better shape, and to bounce back from last week,” he said. “Tonight, it was nice to get it done all the way.”

Last week, though Tomac had speed an endurance also, overcoming a first-lap crash to rage from last to fifth. That’s Beast Mode.

“Getting it back in the real deal, not just the sprint races, and coming through the pack, not getting any gifts with it,” he explained. Tomac had not won a 20-minute supercross main event since 2023. “Just making it happen all the way, and improving on areas where I thought I was weak and actually seeing it put into effect and working.”

With Tomac that much fitter, now we get to see the battles everyone wanted, and that includes Lawrence, who wanted the chance to learn from the master, and nearly didn’t get it after that Achillies tear.

“It was cool to watch from my standpoint,” said Lawrence. “I wish you guys got a POV from my angle. It was cool.”

If Tomac had not put in the hard effort to recover from the Achillies injury, and returned again in 2025, we would never have seen a symbolic moment like his Beast Mode blast through the outside of the sand turn, passing Lawrence back early in the race.

“I saw it [a sand berm on the parade lap] and I was hoping they would open it up earlier in the day,” said Tomac. “Because it opened up another line on the track. It’s not often the splits work but they did it in the beginning of the main.”

“It’s cool seeing the different race craft,” said Lawrence. “He was on rails in that one, that’s what I would imagine as Beast Mode! It was unreal.”

“I think the days of getting a big lead and coasting to the win are not going to come often,” said Tomac. “The whole 20 minutes we were wide open.”

After the back-and-forth passes early in the race, Tomac broke free from Lawrence and got to race leaders Ken Roczen and Cooper Webb. He powered through them using a old-school gnarly blitzing line in the whoops. Lawrence, though was on his heels throughout and eventually got to the two-time champ’s rear wheel again. With half a main event to go, NBC Sports’ commentator Leigh Diffey summed it up: “It is on now.”

This second half would be the true test. Tomac had led Lawrence plenty of times last season, but wasn’t able to hold it to the end. We saw glimpses last year that Tomac could run Lawrence’s pace. He hung with him a long way in one of the St. Louis Triple Crown races. As they came through the pack in Foxboro. In SMX. At Motocross of Nations. But could Tomac, once known as the strongest rider in the field late in the race, reclaim his tag for endurance?

Indeed. Jett could get close, but Tomac had better lines in the bermed turns by the mechanics’ area. He was more consistent in the whoops. He never wilted. Only lapped traffic gave him a scare.

“Yeah that was a frustrating part of the race and I honestly thought Jett was going to get me because I sat behind Vince [Friese] for maybe a half a lap,” explained Tomac. “You anticipate where a guy is going to go. There was a ton of track on the left side so that’s where I went, and he just drifted over into my lane. I thought I was hosed! Landing there, it was super close! Man, that’s all I can say, it was wild and I thought I was going to give up the whole race because of that situation. It was so close there, even though there was a lot of track open there for somewhere to go.”

Crisis averted. Eli had the endurance again and of course the experience and race craft to  hold off his rival to the end. It was the race that should have happened many times, but instead, nearly never happened at all. Eli Tomac’s commitment and belief that he could still be the best in the sport—even coming off of a devastating injury, even well past the age of 30—created an unforgettable night of racing.

Tomac will race with the red plate for round three. The last time he had it was the night he tore his Achilles in May 2023.Align Media