The penultimate round of the 2025 FIM World Supercross Championship happened Saturday night inside of Stockholm, Sweden’s 3Arena.
The biggest question heading into the weekend was who would be the first to capitalize on PMG Progressive Suzuki’s Ken Roczen’s absence. Roczen led the series by a whopping 27 points coming into the weekend, but last weekend’s race in Australia was his final race of the tour. A lot of debate and speculation about Ken’s departure from the series. WSX had some social posts saying Roczen would be racing the South Africa finale, but it has been confirmed he will not be, and he was not in Sweden. So, the WSX Championship battle will come down to the Quad Lock Honda duo of Christian Craig and Joey Savatgy, and Roczen’s PMG Progressive Suzuki teammate Jason Anderson. After a great race last time out in Australia, Craig came into the night with a 12-point advantage over Savatgy, and 18 over Anderson.
As the day began it was clear that one of the biggest challenges on the weekend would be the track. The dirt was extremely soft, almost sandy. Comparable to what we see at the Seattle round of AMA Supercross and almost identical to the Daytona round AMA Arenacross of recent years. Kudos to WSX for building the track to suit the conditions, making it as safe as possible considering the soft dirt and ruts. The track was very tame and at times riders were going through the rhythm lanes like a MXGP waves section, but the rutted conditions made it extremely difficult, nonetheless.
Savatgy set the tone in qualifying, topping the board for the second week in a row. He was over a second faster than Craig, with Anderson and GSM’s Jordi Tixier rounding out the top four and advancing to Super Pole. There, Savatgy backed up his qualifying performance, winning Super Pole and the first gate pick for the second consecutive weekend.
When the gate dropped for SX1 Race 1, it was Anderson grabbing the holeshot with Savatgy in tow. Savatgy made quick work of Anderson, taking the lead on lap two. Savatgy was able to carry his qualifying speed into the night and quickly put a small lead on Anderson to ride off with the win. Anderson and Craig rounded out the podium. Behind them, Rick Ware Racing’s Henry Miller and the Nichols battled it out for fourth. Miller was able to fend Nichols off for a season-best result.
Anderson nabbed another holeshot in race two, but it was short-lived when Stark’s Vince Friese jumped into the lead for the first time this season. The two went back and forth a couple times but Anderson was able to clear Friese drama-free and retake control of the lead.
Savatgy was next to pass Friese and went to work on Anderson. Joey slowly closed the gap and looked poised to make the pass, but Jason had other plans. On lap six Savatgy got alongside the 21 Suzuki coming into the turn after the finish line, but Anderson had control of the inside, faded wide into Joey’s line causing Joey to tag his back tire and go down.
Savatgy remounted without losing a position, but Anderson was able to ride off with the win. After the race Anderson acknowledge how well Savatgy was riding saying, “I think Joey’s going pretty good tonight, but at the same time, I am going to hunt him down. If he is in front of me or if he is behind me, I think we’re good friends but when it comes to racing, I’m by myself.”
Craig ran fourth early but went down and dropped back to 12th. He put in a great charge back to fourth finishing behind Nichols, who found himself on the podium in his second race of the season. It was a great salvage ride from Craig who knows every point is going to count in this championship fight.
Tixier had his best result of the season in fifth and Henry Miller, who finished fourth in race one, DNF’d due to a bike issue caused from a crash. The early leader, Friese, faded back to seventh.
Anderson put his PMG Suzuki out front with another holeshot in race three ahead of his two Quad Lock Honda rivals. Craig held second briefly, but Savatgy made quick work of him and went after Anderson. He shadowed Jason the entire race, keeping the gap around two seconds, but Anderson stepped up when it counted most. Savatgy had a speed advantage all day and night, but in race three JA found a way to eliminate that advantage and win the race and the Overall GP. The clutch third-race win and subsequent overall was huge for Anderson in the standings.
Craig finished a distant third, more than 20 seconds off his title combatants, but good enough for third overall. Nichols ran fourth early but fell victim to the treacherous track conditions, having a huge get-off. Colt was down for a few laps, but has since posted on Instagram saying, “See ya in Cape Town”. Rick Ware Racing’s Miller backed up his race one performance with another fourth ahead of his teammate, Devin Simonson, who had a season best fifth in race three.
The win erased Jason Anderson’s points deficit completely. He now sits tied atop the standings with Savatgy on 126 points. Tied! Craig salvaged an off-day and sits just one-point back with 125. The finale in Cape Town, South Africa is truly a winner-take-all scenario.
In SX2 GSM Racing’s (via Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha) Max Anstie looked to continue his perfect season. He struggled in the afternoon with a crash during qualifying and was not the fastest qualifier for the first time this season. That honor went to Enzo Lopes. Lopes backed that up with his second Super Pole win in a row. Stark’s Michael Hicks had an impressive lap putting him second in Super Pole with Anstie third.
Anstie stepped up for the night show, though. Michael Hicks grabbed the holeshot in race one ahead of defending champion Shane McElrath. Hicks was impressive, leading over half of the race, but McElrath and Anstie were able to get by on lap six. The two went back and forth a couple times but Anstie was able to come through late and take the win.
RWR’s Coty Schock was able to get around Hicks late for third and Moto Concepts Racing’s Cullin Park rounded out the top five. Fastest qualifier Enzo Lopes went down and was only able to get up to eighth.
Anstie got back to his dominant ways in race two. He led holeshot to flag, but Lopes rebounded from his rough race one and kept Max honest the entire race.
Behind them, Schock found himself hounding down Hicks for third once again but this time Hicks was able to hold him off and get the Stark on the podium in front of all the Stark bosses at the company’s home race. Quad Lock Honda’s McElrath did not get the start and finished a lowly sixth.
In race three, Anstie finally met his match. Lopes grabbed the holeshot and early lead over his Arby’s/Rick Ware Racing teammate Schock. Schock was pushing to go with Enzo early but had a huge crash. He was lucky to remount and finish the race but ended up ninth in the race.
Enzo did a nice job of sprinting away early and opened a comfortable lead over McElrath and Anstie. Anstie looked like he was going for the perfect season for the first eight laps or so but realized it wasn’t happening and backed it down late. However, McElrath did not back it down and began to close on Lopes. Shane had the lead down to less than a second by the finish, but Lopes was able to hang on for the win and be the man to put Anstie’s win streak to an end.
Max’s 1-1-3 scores were enough for the Overall GP win. On the podium, he talked about his decision to play it safe in race three. “That last one, man, the ruts were gnarly”, he explained. “I had one moment where both my feet came off, twisted my ankles, twisted my legs and I was like, okay I’m just bringing it home right now.”
Well done by Lopes to be the first to take the checkers ahead of Anstie.
Anstie just missed clinching the title by a few points but can clinch by simply lining up for all three races next weekend in South Africa. The battle for second is heating up though as Schock leads McElrath by just three points.
