Anstie 'getting to my best self' in supercross

Max Anstie was a dominant force this year's FIM World Supercross Championship, as the 32-year-old Englishman ran roughshod over the SX2 class on his Team GSM powered by Star Racing Yamaha YZ250F. He plans to use it as a springboard to the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.

“It’s not official, I'm told that it’ll be me and [Haiden] Deegan doing the West Region Supercross Championship in 2026,” said Anstie, who won the opening round of the 2025 250SX East Region Supercross Championship in Tampa, Fla. “I’m hoping that it stays that way, but you know how it is with these teams… It can change right up to the last minute. I’d rather not wait, I’d rather keep going and keep rising.”

Anstie explained why he felt the his World Supercross Championship season came together so well.

“Coming off last year’s supercross season in the U.S. where I won a race and ran strong at the beginning of the season, I obviously knew that I had a good base," he said. "Then I obviously didn’t get the whole way through the season. I crashed at Birmingham and suffered a broken fibula, but I knew that I was in a good spot.

"Coming back from the injury, I took my time. I raced SMX. I was a bit rusty for SMX. I had to blow the cobwebs out. But by the time we rolled around to the World Supercross Championship, I was rolling. The bike was feeling great. I updated a couple things and a couple of settings from where I was in supercross. At a number of the rounds, we had other riders from Star Yamaha there. Haiden Deegan raced a couple of them and so did Cooper Webb and Justin Cooper. It was a really cool vibe and cool to have the guys there. We just executed and I did my job and we were able to put ourselves in a position to be successful in a solid five races in six weeks.

"We were all over the place. We went from Australia to Sweden to Cape Town week to week to week. It was pretty intense, but overall, I think we were just rolling; we were in a good spot.

Anstie is eager to keep the critical mass surging in the upcoming AMA 250SX West Region Supercross Championship.

“Yeah, I think it makes sense. I want to be in the West Region,” said the son of former MXGP Grand Prix pilot Mervyn Anstie. “I’ve raced the East the last few years and I love the East Coast. We live on the East Coast. But West is still West, you know? Anaheim is Anaheim. It’s been a while since I’ve lined up at Anaheim on a 250, that’s for sure. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back in that stadium. Yeah, my plan is to do West, but again, it’s not all up to me. The team and Bobby Regan and Gareth Swanepoel will make the call.

"I know it is cliché, but doing this World Supercross Championship and having this time to really fine-tune things put myself in a good position physically and mentally. It’s great to have the opportunity to do this. It wasn’t around a few years ago, so it’s cool at this point in my career to be able to do that and to have an off-season like we have and to keep it rolling into next year’s AMA Supercross season.”

"When I was a kid, supercross felt like the ultimate place to be. You wanted to be in America. We didn’t have Instagram and stuff back then. It was magazines. When I was in the UK it was Moto magazine and Dirt Bike Rider and I wished I was able to be there in America and to do that. And eventually I got the opportunity to be where I’m at right now and on the best 250 team in the pits and to have the opportunity to fight for titles, to train and race with the best guys in the world. I feel good, I’m happy and my body is good. I’m solid and I’m strong and able to keep this going. I just feel like I’m progressing and in a spot now where I’m just getting to my best self."