Slaw Dog
Welcome to the Top 5 Best Moments of 2020. No, this isn’t a sick joke, we actually found some good in this year.
We’re glass half full types here at Vurb, so looking back on a year that most people would find way more bad than good (and we can’t blame them) we’ll take the other approach and save all our complaints for the Vurb HR Department (which doesn’t actually exist).
So, what are the Top 5 Best Moments of 2020? We’ll release these daily up until the clock strikes midnight. And you thought Christmas was over!
Previous Entries
#4: Tomac Finally Gets It Done
It’s hard to poke holes in a resume as accomplished as Eli Tomac’s. But that’s what we do.
So, despite having two 250 titles (one each in SX and MX) and three straight 450 MX titles from 2017-2019, we all focused on the glaring hole in his resume: a 450SX title.
Again, it’s what we do.
It wasn’t like Tomac was Mike Alessi and just sucked at supercross (sorry, Mike). In fact, it was the opposite. He was really, really good.
Prior to the start of the 2020 season, Tomac had 27 career wins—most of any rider ever NOT to win a title. Compare that to Ken Roczen, who had just 11 career wins entering the season (yes, Ken got hurt a bunch, but you get the point).
Everyone knew he was capable, it’s why his missteps were so perplexing.
Consistency was always his downfall, but this year was different—even before COVID hit. Aside from a season-opening seventh, he finished no worse than fifth. He won seven times (no other rider won more than four times) and racked up 12 podiums in 17 rounds.
And, being honest here, he wasn’t getting any younger, so this season was huge.
At 27, Tomac became the oldest rider in Supercross history to win his first championship in the premier 450 division. Jeremy McGrath is the oldest title winner ever at 28 years, 5 months, 17 days. So, yeah, it’s not like Tomac had a huge timeframe in which to work.
“I really thought I was getting to maybe be running out of time,” said Tomac after his title. “I don’t know. When you just look at the past… The past is past, so you don’t want to base everything off that, but I’m 27 and there’s some people that doubt you that way, especially when you look at my past series. I have blown it a few times. So being able to fix that inconsistency, it was a huge relief that way.”
In a year as weird and strange and historical as this, maybe it makes sense that Tomac got his first title in 2020.
Main image: Kawasaki
