The World Supercross series kicked off this past weekend in Calgary, Alberta Canada and it was a wild night. For reasons I’ll get into, it’s too bad the event might be remembered for how it ended than for the fact that it had some good racing. Which we’ll get into…
But first, this series has had its ups and downs since its inception four years ago. We’ve had two owners already and if rumors are to be believed, there might be a third soon. Sometimes they hit it out of the ballpark with races like Argentina last year or with paying to be Eli Tomac’s Red Bull KTM debut or Haiden Deegan’s 450SX debut but other times, it’s been a bit of a rough time with championships that don’t reflect much depth (Roczen vs Friese anyone?). Lots of ups and downs for this series as it tries to get its legs under it.
Generally speaking though, I’m into the WSX. More riders making more money and the teams get paid as well. All things that are good and I would think some stateside teams are pushing to follow this model in the USA, also. In addition, I’m with the WSX motto of "fans worldwide need to see these riders” because yeah, I’ve been all over the world (literally) to see races and the fans love the stars of the sport.We see it in Paris, or Australia, or Geneva...there is a desire, globally, to see USA-based stars, no doubt about it.
But as I said to the now-departed WSX CEO last year, the math doesn’t really math in how this series can be successful. I saw Monster got involved with the series this year which had to get some peoples ears perked up here but upon getting to Calgary, all I saw was four small Monster banners so it’s obvious they didn’t put a lot of money into the series. The PR says they're just the official energy drink of the series, not a full title sponsor or anything like that. Still, better than nothing.
My suggestions? Glad you asked! I’ve gone to one race every season the WSX has been around and like I said, there are things I like about it and here’s a list of that and what I would change.
1
The three-race format is fine but it’s confusing to fans or even guys like me that know what’s going on. The shorter sprint races are good but worth less points than the longer third race that is the “final” and scored more traditionally (10 points to win one of the first two races, 25 to win the last one, I think). Either make the live announcers/screens more up to date on the overall or make all three races the same points. Every WSX I’ve been at ends in confusion cause the live timing page/live stadium feed isn’t quick enough to explain who is in what position to win the race.
2
Keep the Superpole but make it before the first sprint race with a little break in there. Putting it in the afternoon before the “night show” is just weird. Come out of the gate after the fireworks with the Superpole. Please and thank you.
3
Keep the overall schedule of the program the way it is. The AMA/Feld in the USA has everyone showing up at 9AM and leaving at 1AM. Well, actually the western races now start on Eastern time so maybe we get out of there at 10, but then the day starts earlier. Overall that’s way too long and not needed. The AMA even went to one less practice this year and the day was just as long! WSX is nice in that the fans get a pit party, they get signatures and we squeeze everything in from 1PM on.
4
The live announcer WSX has this year seems to be…a little too excited. Like, bro, there’s no need to absolutely scream bloody murder into the mic over and over. I know your job is to get the crowd going but trust me, it wasn’t working. Most of us were worried you were going to pop a blood vessel in front of us. Chill back man.
5
This year's Canadian race moved to Calgary. That is a cool city, as is Vancouver but this race seemed to have way less people than Vancouver in past years. Not sure why they moved but judging by the Calgary tourism lady on Friday having a meeting with everyone plus the “Tourism Calgary” tough blocks out there, I’m guessing $$$$ was the reason with the move. The McMahon Stadium has seen better days also by the way. The last time I was there was 1984 when I saw Bob Hannah win the SX on his HRC works bike and not much has changed since then.
6
Having round one in Aug and then round two in two months in the UK is ridiculous. The points leader will be on a different bike by then! I get it, you can’t go to Canada outdoors in October and hope for good weather (BTW the UK round is outdoors…yikes!) but just stay in your lane WSX and make it 6 rounds in the fall in 8 weeks or whatever. Make it a total off-season SX series and you won’t run into these issues. I get it, booking stadiums etc. ain’t easy (look at the 2026 SMX playoffs for an example of apparently how hard it is to get quality venues in the fall. Sorry, did I type that out loud?) but this series will have zero momentum for the UK round in October.
As most of you saw, the wind picked up late in the final 450SX race and blew the foam tuff blocks and pretty much everywhere. It was nuts and caused a red flag 7 laps into the race.
The WSX series used to use cardboard tuff blocks which were immediately run over by everyone and riders created new lines. They switched to foam at some point, but these were also powerless to the wind. It was a crazy scene for sure and a real bummer that some fans and industry folks will use it to laugh at WSX, which is too bad because there was some great racing all night long. Shortly after the red flag waved, a monsoon rolled in and kept everyone under the tents for a while. Crazy ending!
So, per FIM rules, since 70% of the race was not finished when the flag came out to end the race, the race didn’t count! This didn’t really make anyone happy but, IDK, that’s the rules so? I think if they had finished the race, Justin Hill would’ve gotten second and Dean Wilson third, but I don’t know, the WSX website isn’t exactly easy to follow.
Okay, the Stark “thing.” I had to laugh as each race became the exact same pattern with the electric bikes roaring into the first turn one and two. That happened in each main event until the final one when Webb broke the streak. Leave it to the champ to put his foot down. The Starks came into the series last year, they are locked at certain horsepower numbers and were really a non-factor.
This year three of the four riders on the team returned. So they didn't make some massive change in talent. But we were at altitude in Calgary (3500 feet) and then combined with the FIM fuel rules, the gas-powered were hurting. The series definitely made an oopsie by not adjusting the Starks as well but then again, maybe not? It was pure entertainment watching the guys fight through them. A few team managers were pissed afterwards but we saw last year, the E-bikes had no real (other) advantage out there and it seemed fair. This was just an oversight but it made for great racing!
Stark’s Sebastian Tortelli was pretty giddy after the race as he promised better starts on Friday but even he probably wasn’t thinking it would go this well!
Rick Ware Racing appears to be the mid-80’s HRC of the WSX series after round one. Rick’s SX2 rider, Max Anstie, swept all three mains with relative ease and his two SX1 riders went 1 (Cooper Webb) and 3 (Justin Hill). And in my opinion, it was Hill who was the fastest guy in Calgary.
But Webb rode great, he got better each time out and you could see that amongst the traffic of the silent assassin Stark machines, he never got rattled. He blitzed the whoops plenty and looked good in them, but when they turned into jumpers, he was awesome at it. No surprise. He would wheelie the starter whoop, put his front end down perfectly and grease them nicely.
Webb had a hydraulic clutch on his bike, and his starts weren’t good the first two mains but he nailed it in the third one. I was gonna rag on him for going back to Hydro when his cable set-up in MX has been so good for him but A) he nailed the last start and B) it didn’t seem like it was his choice to go back to hydro. The team just gave him his SX bike.
Hill won the first main by passing Webb and taking off. He qualified quickest as well and looked, well, 1000 percent better than he did last WSX on the Bud Kawasaki. Hill really was on point in Canada and used his bike skills to slice and dice his way through the pack after crashes in main one and two. In eight laps, he came from 16th to 4th in the second main. He was ripping around the outsides of guys, passing them two or three at a time. Hill looked great.
Dean Wilson spent a lot of his childhood in Calgary, so it was cool for him to go back. He got some good cheers also out there. Wilson’s whoop speed (whoops were big!) helped him a ton out there but getting dirt in his goggles in the first two mains did not. Which makes sense because to me, at times, Dean’s speed seemed great and then the next lap, it was off a bit. Maybe his vision had something to do with that?
Again though, in two months when Hill has gone back to Wyoming after SMX, Webb’s on a Husqvarna and Wilson isn’t doing the whole series (he was a fill in for Joey Savatgy at round 1 and is just a Wild Card for round 2) do these results even matter? We’ll be back to square one but for now, it’s Rick Ware Racing on top!
In SX2 it was the Anstie show but shoutout to Michael Hicks for getting his and Stark’s first podium in WSX. Yes, his bike helped him out a lot, but he dug deep and passed his teammate Brian Hsu on the last lap of three to help his cause.
Also, Brian Hsu is back? Who knew? The kid was a Suzuki prospect in Europe and seemingly had a fast track to a JGR Suzuki ride at one point and is really talented but lost his way somehow. Good to see him back and trying this racing stuff again.
Cameron McAdoo will be on a Quad Lock Honda at round two and in 2027 and beyond but for round one, the team rented McAdoo’s current ride, a Pro Circuit Kawasaki, to help him stay in this series. McAdoo’s starts were garbage the first two mains, but he started in first gear the last main and that helped his cause a lot. He didn’t have anything for Anstie but he got a TON of passing points!
Some other news and notes:
-The defending WSX champion Jason Anderson did not have a good night. He was okay in one main but fell in the first turn in the other one and then I think he crashed in the final one as well. Jason hasn’t been racing since before Daytona due to health and legal reasons, and I just didn’t see much out of him. I thought he’d be clearly in the top three but really seemed off all night. He got lucky the last main was called off because he was near last in that while Webb was out front. Does he care about this championship? He can be Captain Ambivalent about most things. Anyways, he’s 17 points back of Webb. Good news for him, he’s got two months to knock the rust off.
-Also, Jason wasn’t running the #1 and also didn’t have the red background with his #21? Captain Ambivalent strikes again? IDK man, WSX- catch the fever.
-Speaking of Pipes Suzuki, I saw Colt Nichols after the race, and I have a good relationship with Colt 45 but in no way was I gonna go interview him. I made a joke about a rough night and he agreed. He made a joke about himself being bad and wandered off. I don’t know who was out there for the #45 but man, off night for Colt- especially in the whoops.
-Mike Alessi made his comeback to SX at the ripe old age of 39 years old (I’m also old AF at the fact Mike is 39 BTW) and it was rough. This was a one-time fill in for Enzo Lopes and yeah, Mike didn’t look comfortable at all out there.
-Mitchell Harrison’s starts were on point, and he was a pain the butt to all the top guys at some point or another.
-Luke Clout, Nichols and Kevin Moranz are all in Jason Anderson’s boat of hoping to get better for round two in two months. I was surprised at all of them being nonfactors out there.
Thanks for reading OBS! We’ll be back next week at the same time, same place to pick the motocross series back up!
