Eli Tomac
Monster Energy Kawasaki
You had double shoulder surgery, rotator cuff reconstruction, in the middle of the summer. That’s not just a little surgery. That is a big deal, so do you feel like you are up for the task?
I do. I mean, that was definitely the biggest injury I’ve had in my career, but I did have the time to heal up and just get on this new motorcycle. I think that for the time we’ve had, we’ve had good success on getting the thing to where I feel like I’ll be really competitive and be good enough to win. So far so good. I guess we’ll find out Saturday.
Over the past two years, Anaheim has been horrible for you. You can’t afford, if you’re going to win this championship, to have one those nights like you’ve had here. How do you overcome something like that mentally?
You’ve just got to go out there and not do that. [laughs] I mean, I even tried to tell myself that last year. The little crash I had was so freaky. I just hit neutral and kind of went over the bars where it could have happened any time, anywhere. I just have another year under my belt, so hopefully experience plays a good part in it, relaxing, and just trying to get through it. But it’s the first race, and the nerves and all the emotions are there, so it’s something we have to keep under control.
How long have you been on the new bike [Kawasaki] and how does it compare to the old one [Honda]?
The first time I got on the Kawi was the weekend after Monster Cup. I took a somewhat stock bike back home, I got on the outdoor track for a few weeks and then the team guys came out, and we slowly worked into the [supercross] track. For me it has been a pretty easy process getting in a comfortable spot. I haven’t spent a whole lot of days, scratching my head, thinking about where I’m going to go or how I’m going to fix this or that. Once again, I’ll find out when I actually go race the thing, but for now it has been a really solid platform.
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