ET3 From Here

Jett is even better at Mx and I think Tomac knows that. IMO Either he hangs them up after sx24 or he takes Mx24 off and uses MX season to train for sx25 and gives it one last shot. Either way I don’t think we’ll see him race outdoors again. 
 

Hopefully he does a few outdoors so he can race SMX.

The 3rd Option is the most plausible. 

He's just in a bad luck spell for starts. No idea why. He had the holeshot for race 3, almost ran into the holeshot tower and had to stop.

All these options suck. 

He’s had a great career.  Unfortunately his opportunity to go out on top was spoiled by a rather unusual injury.  I feel like he’s come back this year to recreate that scenario but the moment has passed.

He’s still a threat to win every weekend…seems like he’s always had a “cold stretch” during every season before turning it on…granted, he hasn’t had to race Jett in years past…so I think we haven’t see the last of him.  At least I hope not.

WSX champ, I will go to a WSX to watch Eli ride

If he retires after SX I think we get an announcement just before or just after the Easter off-weekend. This would be in time before Denver and SLC so Feld and his local fans can fully appreciate him.

He is 31 years  old.  No one has won a 450SX title at age 30+.  He had a GREAT career, but his days of winning  are over.

Tomac won it last year at 30 years old...Yeah, I know, I know. To me, he won it.

No doubt if he hangs in there, Eli 'could' win again. Lots of old-timers pull off a win here and there.

agree. all these threads crack me up. shit can  change so fast. tomac has a 1 freak moment last year but otherwise he was pretty dominant. give the guy a chance to breath before writing him off. jeeze

IMO, he still has the talent and the speed to win (with a start). He's coming off an injury and a lot of time off the bike and I'm sure that plays a role. My question is...does he still have the same desire to race as he thought he did? And is he willing to push the limits as he has in the past? I sure hope so! There is nothing more awe inspiring as when he's dialed in and just flying around the track. 

Tomac seemed to have the desire after Arlington. Losing Daytona seemed to suck some of the fire out of him.

No joke Imma probably cry when Eli announces his retirement. Reminds me of my childhood/growing up which wasn't the smoothest but watching SX/MX gave me comfort and helped me through the rough times.  

I believe he's still recovering, getting up to speed and gaining confidence. 

In my opinion the best case scenario for him would be to finish out SX (ideally with a win so he qualifies for SMX), take off the summer, race SMX and have another off-season to prepare and make a serious run at the title in '25.

Or he decides he has nothing to prove and rides off into the sunset at the end of '24 SX. He's earned the right to do whatever the fuck he wants IMO. 

I really don't believe Tomac's age is holding him back in SX. Sure he's probably burned out at times, but the physical ability is still there. His current mix of maturity and speed on the Yamaha makes him more of a 17-round title threat than his Kawasaki years IMO.

The difference is the competition, led by Jett. Kawi Eli might've beat Jett more occasionally on pure speed, but not for a title (which he didn't win in SX until 2020). 

#3,   Eli to me seems like a guy that enjoys his profession, has honed his skills to be one of its elite representatives, and has used it to facilitate his monetary goals.  He's always seemed to have a turnkey approach to his racing career, turn it on or turn it off.  I truly believe he has already plotted his course once hanging up his boots, and it doesn't involve motorcycles or racing.    

Same, ive only been a fan of the sport for three ish years and I have showed every emotion i have watching this sport. I feel more connected to this sport than baseball.

Eli is also a better outdoor rider, always has been. His Achilles this year has been starts. The top 5 this year been seriously inconsistent including Jett and hopefully it gets back to that to keep the season interesting.

Jonny o said it to dungey, and dungey felt it.  "you've got 10 years before the fire goes out".

He's a family man, on the cusp of his next chapter.   31 isn't 21.
 

I'm right there with you man!  He had it!  It didn't  happen  though.  Freak injury due to his age and MANY years of wear and tear on the body from being a professional  motorcycle  racer?

Don't know but a few of his interviews to me have made it sound like he wants to keep going... citing the injury now and referencing 2016 kinda sounds like this isn't what I wanted and i'll be back.

ET3 is far from "done" but he's not the fastest anymore. He however has the experience and the skill to be a top rider that's capable of a win at any race. Rehab is slower at his age, I really didn't expect him to be his preinjured self. I do expect he's still getting better. 

TM

If you watch stand-alone clips of his riding, he looks the same or even better on the bike than he ever has. Hell he's running better Sexton right now. Its just the subjective comparison of his results and speed to Jett that makes it seem like "he's off." 

He can only control what he can control - himself. There's nothing he can do if someone else comes along that happens to be better than him. 

Imagine if some guy showed up next season and started beating Jett every race by 5-10 seconds. Are we going to say Jett's not the same racer that he was, the bike is different, and on and on? 

Didn’t he say something like “ask to the team” on the prerace weege show last week when he was asked about Mx plans? Maybe I misheard but there’s a lot to unpack there if true lol. He’s a titan of MX so I doubt the team don’t want him to line up - results wise it’s not gonna go how it usually does for him but he will be a podium guy for sure. 

Agree. Kind of like Dungey in '17. I don't think he wanted to deal with Eli for 24 brutal motos all summer.  Funny thing is I think Dunge would have won that summer with his consistency