{"id":588121,"date":"2026-04-06T01:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T01:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588121\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T01:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T01:23:08","slug":"thomas-whether-body-or-bike-the-form-tomacs-on-right-now-isnt-good-enough-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588121\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas: \u201cWhether body or bike, the form [Tomac\u2019s] on right now isn\u2019t good enough to win\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

St. Louis was bonkers! Haiden Deegan<\/a> clinched the 250SX West Division championship two rounds early, Eli Tomac<\/a> continued his streak of head scratching finishes, and Ken Roczen<\/a> raced to his second consecutive race win, and closed to within five points of Tomac and Hunter Lawrence<\/a>. Oh, and by the way, Tomac and Lawrence now just happen to be tied for the lead with just five races left. We\u2019ve got plenty of questions about St. Louis, and fortunately former pro and NBC on-track analyst, Jason Thomas, was able to answer them.<\/p>\n

The St. Louis round was held in the last domed stadium of the season. Did this provide a sense of urgency for any of the riders to garner peak results in the last controlled environment?
I don\u2019t think so, not in a conscious sense, anyway. I do think there is a sense that the series is winding down and the clock is ticking, though. Those who need to make up points understand the opportunity is lessening with each passing Saturday. It\u2019s not enough to simply retain the status quo, progress must be made or time will run out.<\/p>\n

The rhythm lane on the sidelines was long, running the entire length of the stadium, and there were multiple options riders could take. How did the options evolve as the track deteriorated over the course of the main events?
This rhythm section was a big differentiator on Saturday. Being able to pull the 3-3 from the corner was a huge deal. If you could execute it cleanly and consistently, that was enough to pull a gap in that section. It became incredibly difficult to do though, as the ruts became increasingly more challenging lap after lap. The rhythm sections are often routine in modern racing due to the efficiency of the bikes and great track maintenance. St. Louis was a throwback to the ruttier tracks of yesteryear.<\/p>\n

Eli Tomac<\/a> wasn\u2019t himself in Birmingham and Detroit, and the trend continued in St. Louis, where he struggled to find the form he had earlier in the season. What do you think is going on with him? Did you pick up on any clues that might get us closer to understanding this mystery?
It\u2019s a great question and at this point, who knows. He was very outspoken on Friday that he\u2019s totally fine and everyone with a theory is wrong or worse. One thing is for sure, though, he isn\u2019t riding as well as he was in the first half the season. Whether body or bike, the form he\u2019s on right now isn\u2019t good enough to win. He can\u2019t stay in this five-six spot and expect to keep the red plate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Louis was bonkers! Haiden Deegan clinched the 250SX West Division championship two rounds early, Eli Tomac continued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85,287492],"class_list":{"0":"post-588121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-st-louis-supercross-racer-x-motocross-magazine-supercross-dirt-bike-mx-racerx-illustrated-dirtbike-motorcycle-racing-freestyle-video-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}