The FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) wrapped up this weekend in Australia. Max Anstie, who found his supercross footing earlier this year in the 250 class, was dominant down under, which helped him win the title over last year’s champion, Shane McElrath. The two riders had the utmost respect for each other in the post-race press conference, where Anstie also talked about how much winning an FIM World Title means to him.
Max Anstie
Congratulations, Max. In a pre-event interview, you got to see the gold medal. Now you have it. What does that mean?
Max Anstie: Oh, I've been dreaming a long time to have one of these. I know we were only on 85’s but the first time I raced Ken [Roczen] was in 2007 in Bulgaria. I was second there. And then I've spent years and years and years in the GP’s and I was third and then last year being second in the championship, man, it's one of those where I’ve wanted one of these gold medals for a long time. So, it was very cool. Then yeah, showing me the medal before I'd actually got the job done the other day, [Laughs], I went back and called my wife and I'm like, man, if I was superstitious, I feel like that might have not been the best thing! But it's one of those where I executed. I was actually more nervous yesterday for the Oz races. I knew tonight meant a lot to me, so I didn't want to mess it up yesterday. Today I just kind of felt like my day was clockwork. I just executed. The only thing I kind of fluffed up was the start in the first main, my start device came out as I went over the gate. But apart from that my starts were on point. The team done a great job. Talking about Kenny's issues with the clutch, Marty [Davalos, Team Manager] said on Tuesday, we were riding at a track close to here at Dean's [Wilson] friend's house and he goes, “I've got a new clutch for you to try.” I was like, “Oh, I don't really want to try anything, my bike's good.” We put it in, and I was like, “All right, yeah, this is good.” And we managed to run with it and man, my starts were dialed tonight and, and with these short races it's so intense. As far as I'm concerned, we had three rounds. Each main event counted for points. So that's, that's nothing for me. That's like racing East Coast Supercross in the U.S. I knew I had to execute each main and I'm pleased with tonight. I was able able to put a stamp on it and come away with a win and this gold medal.
I'm glad you've used that word execute. It's been a common theme in some of your answers this weekend. And if you look at it holistically what you did here last night, tonight and then even finishing the final race with the win and the fastest lap, just take us through that.
Exactly. I said to my wife the other day, she, she didn't know the difference between a whip and a scrub. And I said, “All right, if I win, I'm gonna do a whip.” So, she knew what that was. I was trying to put some style on it. But yeah, it's been amazing. Two or three years ago, not even that long, it was 2022, halfway through the year I didn't have a ride, I didn't know what was going on. My career has been opened up again. I'm 30 years old but I feel like I'm 17 again in supercross. I love supercross. My brain is constantly thinking about, you know, how to go faster and how to go better in the whoops. I wanna keep this momentum going into next year’s supercross in the U.S. and then before you know it again, we’ll be back for worlds.
Can we get a sense of what this means for motocross and supercross in the UK and so on?
Well, I really, really wanted to make a statement with this. You know, my old agent, Jamie Dobb, I've said it before. He was the last British World Champion in 2001. And he likes to tell me that! That was outdoors, but I don't care, this is an FIM World Championship, whether it's supercross or MXGP, it's still gold and I'm a British World Champion. Coming from the UK, supercross feels so far away. And, you know, I went, one-one at the Motocross of Nations in 2017 and, not that no one cared, but it was just like it just got brushed over. You go to the Motocross of Nations the year after, in Assen and the King of Holland is there! In England, motocross is not a big sport. It's literally viewed as hooligans or whatever. You know, it's not viewed as being professional or whatever. I want to try to change that, and I want the kids to think maybe one day we can be racing this FIM World Supercross Championship and get to this level. So, I don't know. I know I've got to go back to England next weekend for the FIM Awards. It's quite fitting. So hopefully, the media crew here can get me on some TV over there and I can actually push it a little bit. So that'll be handy!
Going into that second main? What was the emotion like. You heard you had already wrapped up the title.
Yeah, it was weird cos after the first main, my team guys said, “You've won it, you've won it!” And I was like, “Huh? what happened to Shane? Because I saw Blose was off the track and then like, “No, Shane DNFed.” And I couldn't figure out if where [Maxime] Desprey was, I had no idea. And I said to my mechanic, “Right? Let's focus on one thing at a time. Let's go and execute this next one.” And then after the second one, of course, yeah, it was fantastic. But Australia supercross taught me a lot because last year the final round was in Wagga, Wagga, right? And, and, and we had a two-moto format, and I won the championship in the first main, the second main it was getting dark and dusty. And honestly, I didn't even wanna ride, like I was riding around in fourth and I was like, “Oh, like I rode terrible.” So mentally this year, I said to myself, “Right, no matter what happens.” I said to my mechanic, “No matter what happens in between the motos, we stick to the plan because I want that bonus money of the night as well.” The standard story goes, I wanna tip your reeve up and, and empty them out. The championship bonus is all right. But I wanted the night bonus too. I got some toys to buy for my little guy. So, gotta make this month trip away from my family worth it. You know, Millie's back there and she's like, “Man, we've been through all the hard times” and she couldn't come out here and obviously we've got an 18-month-old baby. So, the one thing that makes it a little bit easier is I keep winning the races I'm doing. So that's handy.
Shane McElrath
Shane, there was a points deficit obviously coming into the weekend the number one plate goes. How do you feel on balance about Melbourne? We've loved having you here, but it's tinged with a memory now, isn't it?
Shane McElrath: So, yeah, it's good and bad. Obviously, it's disappointing that I wasn't able to back it up but at the same time, like between Abu Dhabi and tonight, it's like, dude, I fought as hard as I could with what I had and Max was just dialed in, like you said, it was like clockwork. And him riding yesterday and then him riding today, it's like, dude, I've had probably my best qualifying today that I've really ever had and just felt good and I'm riding aggressive, and Max was just a little better each time. So, it's a lot of fun. I love the competition and yeah it sucks to lose, like, none of us like getting beat. But I'm happy with my effort and leaving here it's like, I love Australia and I can't really say much. It's just so many things happened that were really kind of out of my control. I kept fighting the best that I could and the second and third main, I didn't have any brakes from the first one. Like we kept changing brake stuff and I don't know if anybody seen, but like the Plywood took us out when we were trying to get back to work on the bike. The wheel wouldn't roll and so the bike slid out and took my brother and I both out. And so, I bent my front brake lever up in that, well, then we bent it back and then my front brake didn't work. So, we didn't find that out because we were messing with the rear brake. And so, it's just funny. I'm happy with my effort and proud of Max. It's, it's been a lot of fun racing him and even all these guys, they're all such good riders and to get to race and battle and, and bang bars and it's like the competition is just so much fun. So yeah, I'm as happy as I can be.
Can we tempt you back down under at some point in time?
Oh, yeah, as long as we're here next year, I'm here. So yeah, I like it.