On Sunday, Eli Tomac had his ruptured Achilles tendon “all tuned up and fixed” at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colo., and is now fully focused on recovery.
The night previous, the No. 1 Star Racing Yamaha rider saw his title hopes dashed during the main event at Empower Field in Denver, Colo., during the 16th round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross.
The incident occurred after Tomac slightly overjumped one of the rhythm sections on the track.
“Was just standing up into that ramp, and I guess the high G load just took a little too much for my Achilles there,” Tomac described in a recent video update he addressed to his fans via Instagram. “I’ve overjumped plenty of other jumps just as hard, if not harder, and it’s been totally fine before. I guess just stuff happens with racing.”
The injury effectively ended his season.
Star Racing Yamaha team manager Jeremy Coker added, “It’s hard to really put it in words, to be honest. Obviously, this is a tough one for Eli and the whole team. The day was going really well, we had a good qualifying and a good heat race and were leading the main event, and then the rug got pulled out from under us.”
The Colorado native initially entered his hometown race as the points leader, with the potential to clinch his third 450SX title one round early. However, his 18-point lead over Honda HRC’s Chase Sexton was swiftly shattered once he was unable to complete the main event.
“Basically, at a loss of words right now for what happened and how it happened. In my mind, it was just a freak deal and just a racing situation,” Tomac said.
In the update, he also acknowledged the great success he’s had with Star Racing Yamaha over the past two years — including their sweep of the Supercross and Pro Motocross championships in 2022, and the seven Supercross victories they collected this season.
“I’m not going to make any decisions on my future right now. That will come maybe a month or two down the road on whether or not I go racing again or what happens,” Tomac said. “We’re just going to focus on getting healthy.”