Images by James Lissimore
Now with Firepower Honda, Shane McElrath is looking to reclaim the FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX) in the SX2 class, which he won in 2022. He's off to a good start by winning the opener, with consistent rides over his rival Max Anstie. With Anstie not competing in the whole series this year, McElrath is looking good early for the championship.
Shane talked to Steve Matthes after the race about his evening in Vancouver.
Racer X: First of all, before the first start. What happened or what went wrong to off the start of the first main event?
Shane McElrath: Yeah, I wasn't ready for the gate drop! It just went so quick. Like I didn't even have my bike revved up yet. Yeah, so I was a little bit flustered from that and we made some bike changes going into that main, especially after the second practice earlier, like the track was beat up and it's like struggling, trying to put that really fast lap in. Like, that's not really my style, but all my laps were really consistent. So I'm like, okay, what's, what's it gonna take? So, we softened the bike up a little bit anticipating it to get really rough. I wasn't getting a lift on the jumps and, and the whoops, I was kind of bouncing around. Second moto, I got the win but still Max caught me pretty quick. I didn't have the speed.
Did you know he was going to try to make one last thing in the whoops? He screwed up. But I think that was where he was going.
I could hear him. But it's like, we've really got to nail everything on the last lap because I knew he was coming and it's like, okay, how do I manage this? Just trying to hit my marks and stay mistake free. After that we stiffened the bike back up and the track was super rough. But my suspension I started jumping better. I started hitting the lips better.
After you stiffened it up?
Yeah, it's give and take.
Did it feel like Indy or Seattle or was it different than that?
It was really close. It was weird because the, the top layer didn't have a lot of rocks in it. I think they picked a lot of those out which they said that they kind of had to hand sift it. But once we broke through that it was really rocky and then it was like the rocks were our traction. So it was actually really slippery underneath. Honestly, it was a really good racetrack. It was built, like the sizing, the spacing I felt like everything was pretty solid. Some of the lines of the tough blocks, I think they could be set up a little bit better as far as racing goes. Some of the turns are a little bit too wide open. Also some operational stuff. Like going into super final, it’s like nobody had any clue. Is it for points? Is the night over? It kept going back and forth and that's where it's like, dude, what do we need to prepare for? We didn't know how the gate picks were going. So I think small operational stuff we've got to get on top of.
Kenny thought [there should be] a little longer break as far as loading the gates and all that.
I think they learned today. This went a lot smoother than previous years. And so I think this is good, like racetrack operations, this has some good room to grow.
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James Lissimore ![]()
James Lissimore
Well, this was like a real supercross. I mean, unlike some of the other rounds and everything else, this was like a real deal
And the track that's, it's probably one of the gnarliest tracks I've raced on and they, they did track work. But, like Indy, it's like we start with a fresh track and seven or eight laps in, it's like destroyed. So tonight was about managing. I didn't have the all-out speed in the beginning and trying to stay calm through that because we got four races that count for points.
What did you think of the super final thing, racing 450s?
I think it's good if we could have prepared for it a little bit better mentally, like knowing what's going on. Thankfully I had second gate pick. I lined up right beside Eli [Tomac] and, and got a pretty good start. But it's like it was all 450s in front of me. It's tough because I haven't raced against any of those guys on that track. And so it's like you don't know what to expect, how those guys are going to race. So, it was definitely quick learning, but that's kind of the name of the game.
What do you think of Canada? Ketchup chips, all of that. What do you think?
I thought Canada was cool. We, my wife and I, drove around a little bit when we got up here and the place is beautiful and we had some really good food here. The ketchup chips, I mean, they weren't terrible. I wouldn't buy a bag! I had some good coffee and it was a little bit cold here. It felt like it was about half the temperature of Florida, but it was a nice change of pace. We got to wear our jackets!
