Reigning Monster Energy Supercross king Eli Tomac is feeling less pressure going into this weekend’s Houston season opener as he is defending the title not trying to win it.

The factory Kawasaki rider brushed against the big trophy for a couple of seasons before finally winning it in 2020 and now says he has massive motivation to defend it successfully.

ā€œFor now I would say less pressure, because that was the big carrot I was chasing, the first championship. The first one, it was hanging over me for so long, being so close for two or three seasons there and to finally close it out in 2020 was everything for us. I have huge motivation to defend it and do what I can to keep that plate,” said Tomac, speaking before the event.

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There won’t be any opportunity for post-race testing, so the settings that Tomac and his team have come up with for this weekend will have to carry forward for a few races.

“That is going to be hard. Thatā€™s one thing we have to deal with, I am on the same motorcycle as last year, so thatā€™s nice going into that going into that knowing what Iā€™m working with, that’s huge for me,” he said.

“Iā€™m not guessing and wondering if it will work in race conditions. Iā€™m kind of going with what I know last year and just going with that. That is a huge deal, if you have to make an adjustment can you adapt to it.

“One thingā€™s for sure, we have got what we have last year to go off of and we will roll with it from there.ā€

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