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Several weeks ago there was press discussion of Eli possibly racing the Salt Lake City SX round. It's been radio silence since then regarding Eli's return to racing.
I can only guess there has been a lot of negotiating going on this past few weeks. Likely with more that a couple of teams.
I'm confident Eli has been ready to race for a while now. Denver would have been a perfect race for him to return at. I'm thinking Yamaha didn't want him to distract fans from CW and HD's championship runs.
This and the JA / Kawasaki silence has me wondering...
Would anyone be shocked if Eli came out to hangtown and smoked the field?
I'd have to believe if Eli said he was ready to race, Yamaha would be obligated to their ass to whatever race was that weekend. Eli is waiting for the Nats hopefully to be 100% prepped for the championship.
JA was out testing a few days ago. It's in the JA21 thread.
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How do you know Eli is ready to race?
Even with Jett and Hunter back, no I wouldn't.
I'll guess Jett and Eli will battle the Natty's like Eli did with Chase in what, '22? Yeah, Chase will have some good races also.
Because he said he was riding again and might show up at Salt Lake City.
Fibula breaks aren't all that tough to rehab from. He's been able to keep his fitness level up, no doubt.
Matthes or Big Lew said that his injury was unexpectedly still giving him some problems, last I heard.
I thought that was MXA with a 21 on their test bike?
They said that recently?
I thought he meant testing another brand, my bad.
Within the last 2 maybe 3 weeks
Last time Eli was dealing with an injury going into outdoors was his knee from atlanta in 2022, and he won that outdoor season. I hope he does well this season.
I'm surprised he's not linked to Triumph in any way. The previous 450 manager at Star (Jeremy Coker) is the GM at Triumph. You would think there would be some connection/relationship..
I forget who, but someone said triumph isn’t ready for an eli level guy yet.
He was spinning laps with a super fast world cup downhill kid, Asa Vermette, on the moto track pretty recently. Hoping all is good for the outdoors
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Asa is an absolute mad man on a bike. Such a genuine kid too. So hyped to watch his career progress.
That's sick he got to ride with Tomac.
You're greatly underestimating how fast Chase is outdoors.
A kid will go 24-0 for the first time in a decade+, leave the outdoor discipline on top and there's people pretending a (very badass all-timer, look at my profile pic) dude on the doorstep of retirement is smoking him outdoors, or that someone who literally has NEVER beat him 450 outdoors has a chance (Tuck Sexton). Im here for the 2nd place debates and I'll take Eli all day over Tuck, Prado and Huntah - but the W, Jett all day every moto he's on the line, Dont know how you can assume otherwise even on the 25' Honda (which works better outdoors).
Jett is the man, no doubt. Chase can challenge him and keep him honest. He's not getting smoked by 20sec. He'll be Jett's closest competition IMO. I'm really excited to see what Prado can do. You know he's pulling every holeshot and working from the front
Chase hasn’t beaten Jett outdoors? You sure?
Hangtown when Jett thought he was MC at Millville or whatever race that cost him in ‘96? lol that’s the only race that I can think of, or did Jett race the next race or two?
Once at Hangtown last year (talking overall wins). Three times for the moto - two at Hangtown and once at Southwick.
Watching the latest update from ML it seems Tomac’s only options are KTM (if Chase goes to Kawi) or Ducati.
Pipe dream, but how cool would this be? I mean hey, it's a proven platform with tons of development data, cable clutch, basically free reign with suspension, and everything would come full circle. Just sayin 😉
Personal opinion on brands aside I hope he can land somewhere and end those final 1-2 years he wants on his own terms. I get the position star is in, but man the sport is so much better with ET3 trying to snap throttle cables in it.
Redbull ktm sprinters are in salt lake. Why would they drive them all the way there? Maybe a test with Eli after the race or they tested earlier in the week with him?
If they were bringing sprinters to elis place, they should have done it in denver, a heck of a lot closer than SLC.
Probably has something to do with the supercross finale in salt lake this weekend….
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