Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Eli Tomac took his third win of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship as Team Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence won the opening round of the 250SX East series on Saturday night in Houston. Both riders were available to the media following the races for this Debrief feature.

450SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Huge win for you tonight… coming in you were four points ahead of Cooper [Webb] and Chase [Sexton], now you extend the points lead, so a big night for you in Houston.

Yeah, it a big rebound for us, last week’s crash was really scary and to be honest, I still can’t believe I’m okay and healthy, nothing was even tweaked from it. I just wanted to come here and have a good solid race, my starts were back to being better again this evening, starting up the front in the heat and the main was key for me. The red flag in the main was wild, it was unfortunate for my team mate Dylan [Ferrandis]. But yeah, I just improved my riding in the main event. I felt like the whole day, Chase [Sexton] was on another level compared to us, but I just ended up riding better in the main, I found a couple more lines and just was able to do it for those 20 minutes.

Did you feel Chase coming back at you as he was closing that gap, did that get you to pick it up a little bit?

Oh yeah, there was no time to rest at all. When you’re racing guys, you’re always marking them and watching. Thankfully, the lap traffic wasn’t too bad this weekend. The track was pretty good and fast, it was good in that way. I definitely never felt at ease though, I can tell you that.

It looked like you were under a bit of pressure prior to the red flag. It seemed like after the restart you were able to free up your riding a little bit, did that break before the restart give you time to process things about the track that helped you once you got going again?

Yeah, I had major pressure before the red flag, AP [Aaron Plessinger] was all over me, I didn’t really know where to make the time up, I was trying to figure it out, but I couldn’t. But it definitely seemed like I was better once we going going again the second time.

Did you ever think about changing your line in the sand? You were really keeping your momentum up around the outside, did you ever have to go inside to protect that or were you dedicated to that outside?

In the main, I don’t think I went inside… maybe once. The outside in the main, for me was way better compared to the heat race with the way it shaped and formed up. You had to ride the edge of it the whole way around in the main.

People have asked you this a lot, but you’re nearing Ricky Carmichael in total wins, it’s a pretty big deal, do you think people will appreciate you enough for what you’ve achieved and that numbers that you have?

The win record is just, it’s a cool space to be in, to be close to those guys and have the chance to maybe get in front of them, but I’ve got to get there first. I feel like last year winning both titles was a big thing for me, it’s hard to get both. So you know, I’m satisfied with the things I’ve done.

After a crash like last week, does that change anything throughout the week?

Well, in the middle of the week I just couldn’t believe I was okay and that I was riding, I was totally normal. But, on Friday when we rode press day, there was the 90 degree turn after the tunnel and a three onto the table again, to be straight up I had some like PTSD in my head, that’s for sure [laughs]. I jumped extra to the right, it definitely crept into my head a little bit, because it was the same kind of jump. But hey, just got to try and push on and keep it out of my head.

Take us through what happened between the heat and the main, was it a case of just getting fired up and re-focused, or did you look at some lines or make changes to the motorcycle? Because obviously you were a lot better.

We made no adjustments to the motorcycle, just tried to be better. Tried to be better down the rhythm lanes, I really focused on not missing the triple-quad, I missed that a lot in the heat race. Other than that, my goal was to just get out front because to be honest, after the heat race, I just couldn’t hang, then things just changed in the main.

250SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Take me through the approach to the weekend, you’ve been so close to a title two years in a row, did you want to come out and immediately establish yourself? It seemed like you built and got better as the day went on.

I wasn’t trying to come out and establish anything, I’m confident in what I can do on a dirt bike. I know where I could’ve been better last year, so just trying to do that. Qualifying was a little rough, just trying to put together all the segments in one lap. I just couldn’t seem to put them all together in one lap, so we’ll work on that this week. That’s about it really, just happy to execute, we had two great starts in the heat and the main, so yeah it was a pretty good day overall.

You mentioned it on the podium, take us through that off-track excursion on the opening lap…

Yeah, I got pretty lucky! Normally when you go off the track you’re either washing the front on the boards or the concrete on the side, or you get a tough block banner caught up or something, so I got pretty lucky on that one. But yeah, it was cool to pass the Euro guy in the sand section, that felt good [laughs].

What’s been your main focus this year compared to last year?

I look back at last year and the first few races my starts weren’t amazing, then obviously A3. So, that’s pretty much it, I won everything besides the last one by a bike length, so my second half of the season was really good. But yeah, it’s hard to say, because every race you go into you feel like you have to win, but recognising the one night where you have to settle for a second, rather than taking a risk you don’t have to and ending up one the ground, it’s tough because you don’t want to just roll over, so you got to know when it’s the right night, and that’s where the experience comes in.

You’re in your third season of Supercross now, you’ve started the series off winning this race, it feels normal for you to be winning races and be a title favorite. Can you get to the point where you start taking wins for granted or will you always celebrate this moment every time it happens?

No, absolutely not. I’ll never take it for granted, I’ll definitely always enjoy them as much as I can, because racing only lasts a matter of years, maybe 10, 12 or 15 years. Then 20 years later, you just miss it, you miss the racing, you miss the pressure on the line, you miss the nerves and the adrenaline. We enjoy it, we love it and we work hard for it, so it’s important to enjoy it.

How does it feel thinking about the fact that you could win the east championship and your brother could win the west championship?

It’s cool to think about it, but we’re still nine rounds away from Salt Lake City, so there’s a lot of racing to go yet. Anything can happen, so we’ll just do our best and check off the boxes and we’ll see. You can ask that question at Salt Lake, or maybe you can’t, we’ll see.