The East Rutherford Supercross was quite an interesting day. The first 250SX East/West Showdown of the year was set to be interesting anyway, but then a weather delay—and thunderstorms—came in and completely changed the scenes, as both the 250SX and 450SX main events were complete muddy messes. Well, when the gates dropped and the riders roared down the start straight for the first time in those conditions, it was the all-white Honda CRF250R of Max Anstie out front! Anstie did his best to keep his bike clean, as he stayed in the race lead from the gate drop to the white flag—although the race win was almost stolen from the #63 by a charging Jett Lawrence in the whoops section on the final lap!
With two turns to go, Anstie got enough breathing room to seal his first ever AMA Supercross main event win. Anstie is known as a good mud rider, but he had to get a good start in order to showcase those skills. He did just that.
The ride was also a huge night for the Fire Power Parts Honda Racing as Anstie’s win was the Australian-based team’s first AMA Supercross race win as well. Moments before the press conference, I caught up with Anstie to get his take on the wild night of racing.
Racer X: Let’s just start off real quick with the break. Obviously, nobody has really experienced that before. What was that like for you? What did you do? Were you trying to stay warm in case we race, or just sit down and relax? Walk us through your night here.
Max Anstie: We obviously had basically an hour where everyone was just sitting down there chilling. It was definitely interesting. We were just watching the rain fall down making the track worse and worse and worse. [Laughs] You’ve just got to refocus when the goggles and the helmet go on. The mechanics were making adjustments to the bike to make sure it didn’t blow up in the rain. [Laughs] I’m obviously really happy. We did what we did, and we came away with the win. It’s unbelievable.
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"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming." Align Media ![Anstie had fun playing in the puddles en route to his first career AMA Supercross 250SX main event win.]()
Anstie had fun playing in the puddles en route to his first career AMA Supercross 250SX main event win. Align Media ![]()
Align Media ![]()
"I’m obviously really happy. We did what we did, and we came away with the win. It’s unbelievable." - Max Anstie Align Media
For the first win for you guys—first with for both you and first win for the team. Just talk about that. Obviously, it’s a huge thing for your career, but it’s a huge thing for the team. So just talk about that relationship with the team and everything.
Oh, of course. For Fire Power Honda, for Yarrive [Konsky, team owner], for Martin Davalos [team manager], it’s absolutely amazing. For Honda, for all of us to be on the box, for a privateer team… Yeah, it was wet, but we’ll take it. We’ll take it any way it comes! [Laughs] I’m super excited about moving on into the rest of this season, going into World Supercross, and bringing this all together for next season to try and be another step better and be another step closer. I’m just really enjoying the process. I love supercross. I love being in America. It’s what I came here for.
So are you going to be back with the team next year? Do you know yet?
Yeah, 100 percent. I’m back with the team next year. They’re a great group of guys and I love it. Really looking forward to continuing the relationship with those guys.
Like you mentioned, it’s a dream of yours, a goal you achieved and everything. Circling back to the first time you did supercross years ago, if you would have said, this is what your career is going to look like the next ten years, you’re going to get a win… would you envision this coming?
Arguably, this is my first full season of supercross since 2010 on 250. So, it’s wild. No, of course. There's no blueprint. There is no set way of doing things. I think I’ve changed that view. I still feel like a rookie. I’m learning and trying to take every moment in and really enjoying it. We’ll see what comes around. I’m definitely excited for the future and these next few races.
Did you know Jett Lawrence was so close at the end?
No, I had no idea! [Laughs]
Talk us through that last lap. You were probably thinking about, this is going to be a win.
Yeah. Literally, the last few laps, I was doubling stuff, not trying to land on any lappers. I was really trying to be careful. And I was like, “Oo.” Then I was going through the whoops and I was rolling the whoops. I thought, I’m just going to roll here. Then I heard like, da da da da. I thought, oh, that’s not a lapper. I didn’t know it was Jett, but I kind of figured it was a Honda because I could hear the bike. I’m quite good with that. I was like, “Oh, I’d better go faster.” The last two times I wicked it up a bit and went a bit faster. Luckily, I had a big enough gap, but it got a bit tight at the end. I had to keep it interesting, didn’t I? [Laughs]
You guys had a little handshake afterwards. Did he say anything to you?
No. Me, Jett and Hunter, I trained with them last year. I’ve known them for years, even from back in Europe. The boys, they deserve all the success that they’ve got. This championship is Hunter’s now, so he’s done great. It’s great to be racing with the guys and just to be on the box with them is pretty cool.
You’re a father now, right?
Yes. I’ve got a little guy. He’s one now.
What’s that like? Obviously, you had the St. Jude graphics and everything.
Oh yeah, it was unreal.
Talk about that relationship being with St. Jude and does it mean any more now that you are a father yourself?
It was pretty cool, because I had “Just keep swimming” on the side of my bike, and that’s from Finding Dory. [Sings] “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” So then that resonated with me pretty well because I’ve been watching Finding Dory the last few weeks.
It worked out nice because there were actually puddles on the track.
Exactly. [Laughs] Exactly!
Yarrive Konsky, team owner, posted the following on Instagram after the race. Note: strong language used in the video below.
