Image: Octopi Media.

This year’s later schedule for the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship hasn’t been ideal in the opinion of outgoing three-time 450MX champion Eli Tomac.

With Monster Energy Supercross traditionally run between January-May, the outdoors in usual years of 12 rounds begin in May and finish latter stages of August.

However, following extensive delays due to the coronavirus pandemic that paused sports globally, the 2020 Pro Motocross series began mid-August and only concluded last weekend at the Fox Raceway finals, where Zach Osborne and Dylan Ferrandis were crowned.

Following a year of uncertainty and a shortened nine-round series, there will be less than three months until the 2021 Supercross season is expected to commence in January. For 27-year-old Tomac, any future plans to run motocross into this time of the year would require a broader overhaul of the professional racing calendar.

“First off, the most important thing is that we were able to race,” Tomac stated. “The timing of it, no it’s not great, just because now our off-season is pretty short, for that sense.

“We’d have to have more time off in between even our Supercross schedule. I think the Supercross is so cramped, we need more weekends off in between for everyone’s sake as well, then make you could put out motocross because guys wouldn’t get so burnt in the middle of Supercross there.

“Really, it’s just important to do any racing at all and that was only nine rounds. You’ve gotta think, a typical season would have three more rounds added to this time of year, so I don’t know, just a weird year all around.”

After capturing his first-career 450SX crown at Salt Lake City in June, Tomac overcame early difficulties in the motocross championship to climb into third position overall by the end of the season.