Weege Show: Why Retire?

Jason Weigandt has to spend family time this weekend. It’s a nice reminder that going to the races is still fun. That could be why racers are staying in the game longer than ever, but somehow that doesn’t stop us from speculating that a popular veteran might hang it up before he’s actually ready to do so. That was Ken Roczen a few years ago, and that’s Eli Tomac now. Maybe Eli Tomac just loves racing and doesn’t want to stop. Is there anything wrong with that?

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Yeah welcome to the weed show brought to you by the Honda CRF 250R and Honda CRF 450R makes winning look easy but not as easy as you think so speaking of not easy I’m escaping from the house right now I’m not headed to St Louis instead it is a spring break road

Trip 10 hours from North Carolina to the Homeland in New Jersey so I could celebrate Easter with the family my gosh do I wish I could be at the races this weekend this is not something that’s easy okay if you’ve been in a family road trip with young kids

Bros now here’s why this is relevant to the world of Monster Energy AMA Supercross and SMX and the whole sport in general the topic I want to hit on I want to start here two years ago Ken roxon and Honda disagreed they agreed to disagree on his participation in wsx

Supercross Honda had an offer on the table for roxon to race Supercross in 2023 they couldn’t agree they didn’t want him to race wsx roxon did so they agreed to disagree and he lost his deal so then roxon had to go shopping and here’s Ken roxon one of the brightest

Shining stars one of the greatest talents and a rider who had won races both indoors and out in the 2022 season not really finding a Suitor he had to build programs from scratch and go to talk to teams that had not really raced at this level ever before it was not

Like factories were lining up to hire Ken roxon and some of the things I heard internally from some very smart people in the industry were downright insulting toward roxxon’s talents and abilities about basically how done Ken roxon was roxon found a ride again with a team

That had never been at that level with the uh PMG HP Suzuki team and they pulled it together and then it became a dream scenario where on a Suzuki he won a race it was the feel-good race of the year we go forward to this year he’s

Still good again he won another race think of how much better this world is that Ken roxson is still in it and didn’t get forced out or retired like I think a lot of people thought he should have two years ago when his value was down to absolutely nothing and this has

Paved the way for roxon to race probably several more years so we’re going to get the gift of Ken roxson occasional race winner Podium Contender and very popular with the fans it’s great for the sport we’re gonna get that gift for a long time which brings me to Eli Tomac now

Any way you want to look at the stats this year they’re not normal Tomac level right we’re going 10 Rounds deep without a win we’re going three races in a row without even a top five he’s not going to win the title this year all those

Things are bad and I see the fickle the Turn Style of this industry the same way people turned on Ken roxon I’m not saying that the teams don’t have interest in Eli toac but I am saying you start to see all these comments of like easy like going to retire should he

Retire people asking him about about retirement and I think he’s super pissed about this a cuz he doesn’t have an answer yet and B when someone asks Eli Tomac if he’s going to retire or they just discuss should he retire or will he retire isn’t that somewhat insinuating

That you think he’s done that would probably piss someone like Tomac who’s very competitive doesn’t let on but we see what he does on the racetrack we know the pride that he has as a athlete and a racer that’s really got to piss him off when he hears I haven’t

Mentioned the word retirement one time and you guys keep saying am I going to retire does do you think I suck do you think I have no value do you think I’m terrible do you think I’m garbage I shouldn’t be out here is that what that means I don’t think that’s necessarily

What people mean instead there are these lazy connections that get made well Eli’s got money in the bank and he’s got kids at home Eli Tomac has had kids at home since he won his first Supercross title in 2020 I don’t think four years later he suddenly realized oh wait I

Have kids all of his super cost titles and his 2022 season which was probably his best ever all happened while he had kids I don’t think suddenly now the kids are the issue he could do both he’s a proud guy I think he’s still thinks he

Can get there I think he still thinks he can win I think he still thinks you know give me more time I’m coming back from an injury I can still find it but even if he doesn’t maybe he still likes racing maybe he likes being a professional athlete probably likes to paycheck

Probably likes to challenge getting up every morning and having a purpose and a goal and how many times have we seen the riders that retire early thinking about a comeback or wishing they had stayed in longer voto has now said I wish I had made a change of scenery to a different

Team that would have maybe kept me going which would have been fun Ryan dunie had to come back actually completely cuz he had not extinguished the fire I know it sounds crazy we have a proud Champion like Tomac but maybe he just likes racing I got to get out of

Here for these dogs eat me getting attacked on all side by dogs maybe he likes doing this and he doesn’t want to stop doing this even if it’s a couple Seventh Place finishes and furthermore the future is never guaranteed I know that everybody’s looking at dude jet Lawrence is the guy

And he is right now I mean jet Lawrence is the best motocross and Supercross Rider right now and he’s only 20 years old I don’t think anyone at this age as a rookie was the best in both Series this early McGrath was the best in Supercross as a rookie Carmichael was

The best in Motocross as a rookie but it took each of them a couple years to get the other disciplined dialed Jets already there I mean this is irresistible force and a movable object combined but you know what vilipoto retired in 2014 because it was like the

Inevitable is going to happen I’m going to lose one of these titles one of these days and that’s going to suck most likely he probably going to lose it to roxon who was great as a rookie in 2014 in Supercross won the motor cross title

In 2014 roxon was going to be a beast in 2015 and then roxon made some mistakes early in the season hurt himself wasn’t even in Supercross to the end I don’t know voto might have had to beat dunie again to win the title I’m not saying he

Would have but if you’re vilot you would have said well I might have been able to do that and then dunie had Eli Tomac breathing down his neck and roxon looking so good in early and then late 2017 but if dung had come back in 2018 Jason Anderson ended up winning that

Title toat crashed out of it early roxon was coming back from Mega injuries who’s not to say that dunie didn’t have more titles if he had just stuck around did what he did stay in the hunt keep doing his program let the other guys maybe

Mess up I’m saying we live in a world where if Eli Tomac keeps doing what he’s doing he can win races again he could even win titles again because dunie could have been the 2018 Supercross champion and the 2017 National Motocross Champion if he just didn’t retire you

Never know how the ball is going to bounce in professional sports you’re always one ankle twist knee twist bad luck situation out of someone else’s hand for a Phenom away from hey look who’s on top again and if you’re Eli you’re probably furthermore saying no I think I could

Beat these dudes straight up I’m Eli Tomac and it’s fair for him to believe that so I just find it interesting that we hear all this outside speculation and noise about is this the end for t you do not hear any of that coming directly from tomac’s Camp that is just

An assumption that we shouldn’t be making because roxon sticking around has been great for the sport any El like Tomac sticking around has been great for the sport and it’s been great for roxon and it would be great for Tomac he drilling a little deeper Jason Anderson’s been hanging out here in the

Carolinas the last couple weeks at clubmx I asked him why he said he he’s trying to still work on his craft he doesn’t want to retire ever so he’s still trying to find ways to get better and better so he can stay up front still get rides still get paychecks also he’s

A full-time California guy right now at Kawasaki he would love to stay with Co for a long long time but just in case they don’t bring him back after his deal expires at the end of next year he just wants to see if he has to move East

Coast to ride for a different team could he and his family handle that so this was a little test cuz he’s already planning for the long game he does not want to retire for a long time Justin Bara I talked to him doesn’t want to

Retire for a long time you look at roxon and Anderson and Bara they’re married they have kids are in their 30s or close in rox’s case they’re probably not going to win these titles they’ve had better seasons in the past but that doesn’t mean they want to stop racing and be

Racers they’ve come to enjoy this lifestyle maybe Eli tomac’s the same way maybe if he sticks around he wins again but even if he doesn’t would you rather not have Eli Tomac in the pits he still might get the loudest cheers of anyone on the track it’s kind of the

Same way Chad Reed was in his latter days and I know that Reed was out there still trying to be Chad Reed still trying to be Podium and race win guy he wasn’t just out there for the fans but it was cool to have him out

There so I don’t want the rush to Judgment of Eli to’s future I for one hope he sticks around I don’t know about Motocross this year I don’t know about SMX this year but I hope he’s at least racing Supercross next season because that would be cool for him and

Cool for anyone that watches these races who is not a fan of Eli toac at this point and you think it felt good when roxon won at uh Indie last year or Glendale this year imagine the next time Tomac gets a win and how good that’s

Going to feel one other note as we head to the Triple Crown in uh St Louis I want to mention Joe shimoda Triple Crown starts are important and I know that uh starts have not been the specialty of shimoda but shimoda’s got a little bit

Of the Dylan fris d fitis which is that people can’t understand what he says and he actually gives reasonable explanations for a lot of these things the problem for Joe is not just been starts Joe is not a sender like most of the 250 Riders he gets better as the

Track gets rougher as lines come in and then he’s got to use technique and smarts and strategy kind of like a Cooper web approach to racing but he doesn’t articulate that well enough for anyone to know that now I do feel like two years ago Joe tried

To Shore that up and tried to really send it in the early laps and all he did was crash a bunch so he’s trying not to do that he’s still trying to find his balance going faster late in the race but a little better early now Honda worked really hard on Joe’s starts

During the break and it worked he actually whole shot the fake start as we call it in qualifying and he whole shot his heat it was bad in the main which I think leads us back to you see Joe chokes when it counts but then Joe said the press conference he just

Had a bump coming out of the gate and the bike didn’t hook up he got a bad start he thought he was going to be able to replicate that heat race start point is I think that Joe might have the starts better now the first race of this Triple Crown might be tough

When the track isn’t as rough but if it is rougher as the night goes on and the starts decent I think we’re just seeing Joe try to develop himself trying to shore up parts of his game and trying to get better and after I just did a huge

Rant about the tomak Anderson Bara roxon group still having life I don’t think it’s unreasonable unreasonable to start looking to the future if jet Lawrence continues to do what he’s doing do we start looking at the future already and thinking like Levi kitchen could that be a jet Challenger in the future

Shimoda Degan certainly people talk about that already and on and on the list goes but never assume anything in sports never assume anything in racing I was just talking the other day about how Adam s culo it doesn’t look like he’s going to get a 450 Supercross win I

Would have bet any amount of money leaving Anaheim one of 2020 that he was going to win a whole bunch you just never know him racing so don’t make assumptions if a guy’s getting a couple Seventh Place finishes that that’s the end of them you never know in this game

The only thing I do know be awesome to have Eli Tomac still out there next year I hope he doesn’t retire