Max Anstie

British motocross racer

  • •FirePower Honda (2022-Present)
Championships
  • •2022 Australian SX2
  • •2023 Australian SX2
  • •2023 SX2 World Supercross
Wins
  • •MX2: 6
  • •250cc AMA Supercross: 2

Max Anstie (born 25 April 1993)[1] is a British professional motocross and Supercross racer. Anstie is the reigning FIM Supercross World Champion in the SX2 class. He is a two-time Australian Supercross champion in the SX2 class.[2]

Anstie has competed extensively in both the FIM Motocross World Championship, as well as the American-based AMA Supercross Championship and AMA Motocross Championship. He is a six time grand prix winner in the MX2 class of the FIM Motocross World Championship, with his best championship position being third overall in 2015.[3]

Anstie has represented his country at the Motocross des Nations on several occasions, the most notable being the 2017 edition of the event, where he helped Great Britain finish third by taking two race wins and being the best overall individual rider in the event.[4]

His father, Mervyn, was also a world championship-level professional motocross racer.

Career

Junior career

Anstie competed internationally throughout his junior career, first competing in the FIM Motocross Junior World Championship in 2006 (in the 85cc class), finishing sixth overall.[5] The following year, Anstie was able to finish in the runner-up spot in the same class, with two-second places behind champion Ken Roczen.[6] At the 2008 edition of the event he was able to win the opening race in the 85cc class, but did not finish the second race, to finish seventh overall with Jeffrey Herlings as the winner.

Move to America

In 2009, Anstie made his professional motocross debut in the 250 class of the AMA Motocross Championship, riding a KTM. Riding in the first eight rounds of the championship he was able to record a best finish of sixth in race two at Red Bud.[7] This effort was enough for Anstie to be signed by the DNA Shred Stix Star Racing Yamaha team for 2010, where he would make his professional supercross debut.[8] Competing in the Lites West class, he recorded several top ten finished, including a fourth in San Diego.

World Championship career

Following his results in America, Anstie was able to sign for the Team CLS Monster Energy Kawasaki Pro Circuit team in the MX2 class of the FIM Motocross World Championship in 2011.[9] Anstie was immediately a factor in the MX2 class, placing in the top ten consistently and finishing third in the first race at the American round. He would come close to the overall podium several times throughout the year, before taking his first grand prix podium at the final round of the season in Italy. After sixth in the final standings, Anstie moved to the Honda Gariboldi team for 2012[10] As part of this deal, Anstie would race the first five rounds of the Lites West class in the AMA Supercross Championship in America for 2012. A best place of sixth in Los Angeles, combined with missing the final three rounds, left him 16th in the championship standings. Anstie would again have a consistent season in the MX2 class of the FIM Motocross World Championship finishing seventh in the final standings, picking up his second overall podium at Lierop in The Netherlands. He finished the year by making his debut for Great Britain at the Motocross des Nations at Lommel in Belgium. Anstie helped Great Britain finish eighth overall, with himself finishing sixth individually in the Open class.

For 2013, Anstie was signed by Suzuki's factory team in the MX2 class of the 2013 FIM Motocross World Championship.[11] Once again, alongside this, Anstie competed in the opening rounds of that years AMA Supercross Championship in the Lites West class – at this point renamed to 250SX West. In the world championship, Anstie was not able to land on the overall podium during the season, but did pick up two third place race finishes. Anstie was on the move again in 2014, joining the BikeIT Yamaha Cosworth team, focussing on the MX2 class of the 2014 FIM Motocross World Championship.[12] He showed an immediate improvement, running at the front of the first few rounds and picking up two overall podiums in a row at rounds two and three. Later in the season, at Lommel, Anstie was able to pick up his first race win en route to his first overall grand prix victory.[13]

Anstie stayed with the same team for the 2015 FIM Motocross World Championship, which moved to Kawasaki.[14] This proved to be his most successful season to date, finishing third overall in the championship behinds Tim Gajser and Pauls Jonass.[15] Included within this was three grand prix wins and nine race wins as part of that. On the back of this, Anstie was selected to make his second start for Great Britain at the 2015 Motocross des Nations. Unfortunately, an injury sustained in the Saturday qualifying race ended his weekend.[16] For the 2016 FIM Motocross World Championship, Anstie changed teams again, to return to being a factory rider – this time for Husqvarna.[17] In what turned out to be a dominant season for champion Jeffrey Herlings, Anstie was able to pick up two more grand prix victories and finish in fourth in the final standings.

Anstie was retained by factory Husqvarna in 2017, but had to step up to the MXGP class for the 2017 FIM Motocross World Championship.[18] Despite picking up a knee injury and missing two rounds, Anstie was able to pick up three overall podiums in his debut MXGP season on his way to ninth in the final standings.[19] Once again selected to race for Great Britain at the Motocross des Nations, Anstie had a stand out weekend, winning both of his races to help his nation get its first podium since 1997. Despite an injury in the early part of the season, Anstie was able to pick up a further three overall podiums on the way to tenth in the MXGP standings of the 2018 FIM Motocross World Championship.[20] This was coupled with another third overall as part of team Great Britain at the 2018 Motocross des Nations. In 2019, Anstie moved away from Husqvarna to the Standing Construct KTM team for MXGP.[21] In a season shortened by injury, he was able to take his first and to date only race win in the MXGP class in Lommel.[22] He missed out on the overall win or podium at the same round due to a crash in the opening race that caused a damaged lung. He was able to ride with this injury to win the second race, but could not compete in the remaining rounds of the year.[23]

Return to America & World Supercross

Struggling to find a ride in the world championship paddock, Anstie opted to return to America for the 2020 to compete in the AMA Supercross and AMA Motocross Championships. Signing for the HEP Motorsports Suzuki team, an injury would rule him out of the entire supercross season.[24] In the Covid-19 shortened AMA Motocross season, Anstie would finish ninth in the final standings, grabbing a third place in race two at the second round after leading much of it. He remained with the same team for 2021, but had injury problems again that ruled him out of the first part of the 2021 AMA Supercross Championship.[25]

For 2022, Anstie signed for the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WPS KTM team.[26] However, when the team lost its title sponsor mid-way through the supercross season, Anstie was left without a ride.[27] Later in the year, Anstie signed for the Australian Fire Power Honda team.[28] He made his debut for the team in the 450 class in the AMA Motocross Championship but his main focus of the year would be the Motocross des Nations and the 2022 FIM Supercross World Championship, dropping down to the 250 for both. The 2022 Motocross des Nations would be a tough event for both Anstie and the Great Britain team, with them finishing tenth overall. In world supercross, Anstie was able to finish second overall behind Shane McElrath, winning two races in the series along the way. This was followed up by him becoming Australian Supercross Champion in the 250 class.

Anstie would start in the 250SX East class of the 2023 AMA Supercross Championship, recording his best AMA supercross season to date. A final finishing position of third in the class was accompanied by his first ever AMA Supercross main event win, in the wet at the MetLife Stadium.[29] Focussing solely on Supercross in 2023, Anstie next competed in the opening round of the 2023 FIM Supercross World Championship, finishing second overall and winning race two. He took the championship lead at the following round after winning two of the three races and dominated the final round in Australia, taking a clean sweep of race wins to become the World Champion in the SX2 class. This was the first time a British rider had won an FIM sanctioned world title in the sport of supercross. In addition, Anstie was able to successfully defend his Australian Supercross Championship crown in the SX2 class.

Honours

Motocross des Nations

FIM Motocross World Championship

FIM Supercross World Championship

FIM Junior Motocross World Championship

  • 85cc: 2007 2nd place, silver medalist(s)

AMA Supercross Championship

Australian Supercross Championship

  • SX2: 2022 & 2023 1st place, gold medalist(s)

Career statistics

Motocross des Nations

Year Location Nation Class Teammates Team Overall Individual Overall
2012 Belgium Lommel  GBR Open Tommy Searle
Jake Nicholls 		8th 6th
2015 France Ernée  GBR MX2 Shaun Simpson
Dean Wilson 		18th N/A
2016 Italy Maggiora  GBR MX2 Tommy Searle
Shaun Simpson 		7th 10th
2017 United Kingdom Matterley Basin  GBR MXGP Tommy Searle
Dean Wilson 		3rd 1st
2018 United States Red Bud  GBR Open Tommy Searle
Ben Watson 		3rd 3rd
2022 United States Red Bud  GBR MX2 Dean Wilson
Tommy Searle 		10th 17th

FIM Motocross World Championship

By season

Season Class Number Motorcycle Team Race Race Wins Overall Wins Race Top-3 Overall Podium Pts Plcd
2011 MX2 99 Kawasaki Team CLS Monster Energy Kawasaki Pro Circuit 29 0 0 1 1 405 6th
2012 MX2 6 Honda Honda Gariboldi 32 0 0 3 1 333 7th
2013 MX2 14 Suzuki Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe 33 0 0 2 0 320 10th
2014 MX2 99 Yamaha BikeIT Yamaha Cosworth 33 1 1 4 3 283 12th
2015 MX2 99 Kawasaki Monster Energy DRT Kawasaki 34 9 3 14 5 537 3rd
2016 MX2 99 Husqvarna Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing 36 4 2 13 4 504 4th
2017 MXGP 99 Husqvarna Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing 33 0 0 5 3 436 9th
2018 MXGP 99 Husqvarna Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing 34 0 0 2 3 386 10th
2019 MXGP 99 KTM Standing Construct KTM 25 1 0 2 0 256 12th
Total 289 15 6 46 20 3460

Grand Prix wins

GP wins
GP-win count Date Grand Prix Place
MX2-class
1 3 August 2014 Belgium Lommel
2 12 July 2015 Latvia Ķegums
3 2 August 2015 Belgium Lommel
4 16 August 2015 Italy Mantova
5 31 July 2016 Belgium Lommel
6 7 August 2016 Switzerland Frauenfeld

FIM Supercross World Championship

By season

Season Class Number Motorcycle Team Overall Wins Overall Podium Pts Plcd
2022 SX2 99 Honda Honda Genuine Honda Racing 0 1 114 2nd
2023 SX2 99 Honda Fire Power Honda Racing 2 3 216 1st

AMA Supercross Championship

By season

Season Class Number Motorcycle Team Overall Wins Overall Podium Pts Plcd
2010 Lites West 48 Yamaha DNA Shred Stix Star Racing Yamaha 0 0 82 9th
2012 Lites West 119 Honda Honda Gariboldi 0 0 53 16th
2013 250SX West 74 Suzuki Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe 0 0 38 16th
2021 450SX 34 Suzuki Twisted Tea Suzuki 0 0 76 21st
2022 450SX 34 KTM Rocky Mountain ATV/MC WPS KTM 0 0 55 24th
2023 250SX East 63 Honda Fire Power Honda Racing 1 4 182 3rd
Total 1 4 486

AMA National Motocross Championship

By season

Season Class Number Motorcycle Team Races Race Wins Overall Wins Race Top-3 Overall Podium Pts Plcd
2009 250 119 KTM 16 0 0 0 0 107 18th
2010 250 48 Yamaha DNA Shred Stix Star Racing Yamaha 16 0 0 0 0 72 20th
2020 450 103 Suzuki HEP Motorsports Suzuki 18 0 0 1 0 193 9th
2021 450 34 Suzuki Twisted Tea Suzuki 22 0 0 0 0 208 11th
2022 450 34 Honda Fire Power Honda 5 0 0 0 0 45 22nd
Total 77 0 0 1 0 625

AMA Supercross results

Year Rnd
1 		Rnd
2 		Rnd
3 		Rnd
4 		Rnd
5 		Rnd
6 		Rnd
7 		Rnd
8 		Rnd
9 		Rnd
10 		Rnd
11 		Rnd
12 		Rnd
13 		Rnd
14 		Rnd
15 		Rnd
16 		Rnd
17 		Average
Finish 		Podium
Percent 		Place
2023 250 SX-E - - - - 2 3 5 2 5 DNF - - 5 1 5 - 7 3.89 44% 3rd
2024 250 SX-E - - - - 2 - 6 8 DNF 13 - - 5 7 1

References

  1. ^ "MAX ANSTIE BIO". racerxonline.com. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
  2. ^ "ANSTIE AND BRAYTON DO THE DOUBLE AS THE 2022 FOX AUSTRALIAN SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP CURTAINS CLOSE". australiansupercross.com.au. 8 December 2022. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  3. ^ "Max Anstie third in the world". Trials & Motocross News. 21 September 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  4. ^ "Anstie Rules the World as Team GB Claim Bronze at the MXoN". Auto-Cycle Union. 2 October 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  5. ^ "Championnat du Monde Junior 2006" (PDF). memotocross.fr. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  6. ^ "Championnat du Monde Junior 2007" (PDF). memotocross.fr. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  7. ^ "2009 Pro Motocross Points Standings" (PDF). americanmotocrossresults.com. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  8. ^ "DNA SHRED STIX/STAR RACING/YAMAHA – ANAHEIM 1". racerxonline.com. 12 January 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  9. ^ "World MX: Searle and Anstie sign for CLS Kawasaki team". Alex Gobert. motoonline.com.au. 6 August 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  10. ^ "Honda Gariboldi 2012 With Max Anstie". Burf. mxvice.com. 17 December 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
  11. ^ "ROCKSTAR ENERGY SUZUKI SIGNS MAX ANSTIE". Burf. mxvice.com. 22 September 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  12. ^ "MSR and Bike it Yamaha Cosworth team up for 2014 and Beyond". Press Release. vitalmx.com. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  13. ^ "Cairoli and Anstie weather the storm". Youthstream. mxgp.com. 3 August 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  14. ^ "Steve Dixon Racing joins forces with Kawasaki". Kawasaki UK. kawasaki.co.uk. 1 December 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  15. ^ "Max Anstie third in the world". TMX Archives. tmxnews.co.uk. 21 September 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  16. ^ "Max Anstie's Scary Crash at 2015 Motocross of Nations". Dan Lamb. motoxaddicts.com. 26 September 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  17. ^ "ROCKSTAR ENERGY HUSQVARNA FACTORY RACING MX2". mxbars.net. 6 February 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  18. ^ "Max Anstie set up for 2017 MX1 ride". Sean Lawless. tmxnews.co.uk. 18 November 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  19. ^ "MAX ANSTIE TO MISS MXGP OF TRENTINO". Husqvarna Racing. mxgp.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  20. ^ Sean Lawless. "MXGP Redsand: Anstie joins Searle on the sick list". 26 March 2018. bikesportnews.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  21. ^ Andrew Hill. "Max Anstie 2019 deal signed with Standing Construct KTM". 1 November 2018. dirtbikerider.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  22. ^ "2019 MXGP Of Belgium Lommel Results". 5 August 2019. cyclenews.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  23. ^ "Injury update: Max Anstie – small hole in his lung". 18 August 2019. gatedrop.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  24. ^ "Max Anstie To Miss Start Of 2020 Supercross Season". 24 December 2019. swapmotolive.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  25. ^ Mitch Kendra. "MAX ANSTIE TO MISS OPENING ROUNDS OF SUPERCROSS WITH BACK INJURY". 14 January 2021. racerxonline.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  26. ^ "Anstie joins Rocky Mountain KTM for 2022!". 5 November 2021. gatedrop.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  27. ^ Jason Weigandt. "BBMX TEAM NOW LOOKING FOR RIDERS [UPDATE: ANSTIE, MCELRATH OUT, NO OTHERS RACING]". 9 April 2022. racerxonline.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  28. ^ "MAX ANSTIE TO MAKE FIRE POWER HONDA DEBUT AT RED BUD". 28 June 2022. motocrossactionmag.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  29. ^ Fábio Fialho. "Max Anstie debuted on the wins in 2023 at AMA 250 Showdown; Jett and Hunter Lawrence got on the podium". 23 April 2023. motorcyclesports.net. Retrieved 20 May 2023.