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Remember when Max Anstie held the red plate briefly way back in Birmingham in February? He would end up DNFing early in that main event. Since then in the results he’s gone 13-5-7 and lately he’s been showing more speed in practice and getting back up in the mix.
Anstie won the East/West Showdown in East Rutherford last year for his first career victory. It was a muddy and a difficult race, but now Anstie has won in perfect conditions, which cements that he and the Firepower Honda team are now an elite level operation and ones not to be messed with.
It’s been a really great story watching Anstie, Dean Wilson, Martin Davalos, the entire crew, and the owner Yarrive Konsky build their program into a race winning organization in a short period of time here in the States. Justin Brayton was a big part of their success as well over the years. They’ve shown that a small team can have all the ingredients to be race winners.
The story now revolves around Anstie at the moment. In the past couple of weeks his stock has risen. He hinted on Race Day Live that he would be on another team in 2025 and PulpMX Hockey’s Steve Matthes has reported that team will be Star Racing Yamaha next season.
Max did race for Star way back in his first full rookie season in 2010. Fourteen years ago the team was a completely different setup and it wasn’t the powerhouse that it is today. Anstie of course, has changed as well over the span of his long career, most notable is his dad strength, as he looks like he could squat a full-sized SUV. This will be a really cool full-circle moment for Star and Anstie as they try and win some championships together next season.
I think it’s also important to note that Anstie tested a Star bike back in 2020 before he made his full-time move here to the States. He chose to race for HEP Suzuki that summer in the premier class during the Pro Motocross Championship, but that ride could have been a possibility.
This was a big birthday win for Anstie as he turned 31 last Thursday. Apparently in this day and age, that means that he’s got several more years of his prime left in him. Anstie, like many other riders in this sport, seem to get better with age, especially in Monster Energy Supercross. He’ll look to carry this momentum into the season finale at the Salt Lake City East/West Showdown.
When you look at Anstie’s career it’s been an unorthodox rise to the top in America, with tons of ups and downs. However, he keeps finding ways to make himself rise above all of the hardships that he’s had to endure both overseas and here. He just keeps building and something tells me that we haven’t seen everything that he has to offer quite yet.
Main Image: Octopi Media
