MAX ANSTIE: HOW IT ROLLS!

Transmoto contributor, Eric Johnson, tracks the rise, fall and resurrection of politest man in AMA MX/SX, 32-year-old Englishman, Max Anstie.

After racing to victory in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250SX East Division Championship opening round at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on March 22, 2025, Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing racer Max Anstie posted up top-seven results in the next three rounds of the title chase before ultimately getting out of shape during a practice session at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, and suffering a broken left fibula.

After both a lengthy and exhausting recovery period, Anstie, a British-born racer who ultimately found his was to America to race full-time in 2009, lined up and competed in the 2025 SuperMotocross Playoffs and has been getting himself into fighting trim ever since. Now looking to jump back into action come the opening round of the 2025 FIM World Supercross Championship set for Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 8, Anstie took a break for training and testing this week and spoke about how he’s doing and where he’s going…

“I’m good,” started Anstie from the Star Racing Yamaha training complex in Grady County, Georgia. “Doing alright. I’m getting myself going again. I’m getting ready for another good run at it next year. Yeah, a bit of a bummer when I broke my leg halfway through supercross this year because we were rolling. But overall, I’m good. I’ve been training with Gareth Swanepoel, and we have all the Star Racing boys over here making steps forward. Yeah, just grinding away.

“I broke my leg in Birmingham while leading the SX championship. I was feeling solid and super strong. When I broke my leg, I looked at it and it wasn’t even straight, so I thought, ‘I’ll be getting surgery’.”

“Basically, I’m in Cairo, Georgia,” furthered 32-year-old Anstie. “The team’s base is in between Cairo and Tallahassee, Florida. Yeah, I’m in Cairo and it’s a good day for getting the work done. It’s been good. You know, coming over from Europe, it was always, ‘Go to California. Go to California’. And then things started to switch and most of the riders and teams are now primarily based over on this East Coast. It’s definitely out of the way. There is not much else to do apart from just riding and training and getting your laps in and getting your miles on the bicycle and that’s it. Right now, it is like full-on with all that sort of stuff. It’s good. It keeps me going being around all the young kids on the team. With Star Racing being such a big team with the amateurs and the young kids, you’ve got a good mix. You’ve got Cooper Webb and Justin Cooper, who are more experienced and who are older guys. Then you’ve got this young guys and young kids coming in. Definitely for me being a bit older but still learning and figuring out supercross and trying to be better every day … it definitely keeps you young being around these little kids that are just firing away on all cylinders straight away.”

His leg healed and his endurance and racecraft now spooled up to optimum levels, all things considered, it’s ultimately been a frustrating period for the polite Englishman.

“They’re saying I don’t really need this bone. It bloody hurts, so I don’t know how I’m supposed to be racing. Eventually, we had to do surgery, so that was another 12 weeks away from racing.”

“Yeah, it is frustrating, but at the end of the day I’ve been in the sport long enough to deal with it,” he said. “I know how it goes. I know how it rolls. What goes around is going to come around. And this broken leg … I broke it in Birmingham. I was doing really good and leading the championship. I was feeling solid and feeling super strong. And then when I broke my leg, I looked at it and it wasn’t even straight, so I thought, ‘I’ll be getting surgery’. By the time the team spoke to the doctors and they said, ‘No, you don’t need surgery! You don’t even need that bone!’. I was like, ‘I’m not a doctor, but whatever you say’. Eight weeks later, I was preparing for the Pala National as much as I could and it was tough. The doctors and my trainer Gareth Swanepoel said, ‘Just keep pushing as hard as you can and the pain will go away. It WILL go away. It will be alright’. I was like, ‘Okay, this is different. They’re saying I don’t really need this bone. It bloody hurts, so I don’t know how I’m supposed to be racing, but okay’.

“Eventually, we had to do surgery, so that was another 12 weeks away from racing. It ended up being nearly a six-month thing by the time I got back to racing. It was a long time off, but like I said, I’ve been around long enough. I’ve seen things that are much worse with other riders and teammates. It could have been worse, it could have been better, but it is what it is. Live and learn and make the best of the situation. I’ve had a lot of time off to kind of now be fresh for the next how many years! (laughs). Let’s just stay healthy for a while.”

Although his race results didn’t send the motocross world spinning on its axis, Anstie was quietly pleased to be participating in the SuperMotocross World Championship and getting his laps in.

“Finally, I was able to ride and feel pretty good. I just wanted to get some gate drops and ride and get some time on the bike and kind of get through that mental block of, ‘What if I case something? What if I overjump something? What if I hurt my leg? What if I crash? Is it going to be okay? Like, the Charlotte race was super-wet and I survived and I left there thinking, ‘Alright, I’m okay. I’ll be better again’. At St Louis, I was ninth. I was okay. I was still a bit rusty, but fine. And then we went to Vegas. I actually felt really good in Vegas. I crashed in one of the races with Ty Masterpool, but in a weird way, I left there thinking, ‘Alright, I’m not broken. I’m still alright’. We all want to do great things, but after being on the couch for six months, I was okay with it. I was okay with getting through it and getting some time in and now building for this 2026 supercross season.”

And to optimise both his off-season, as well as 2026 preseason racing program, Anstie will compete in the entire FIM World Supercross Championship, which (after the cancellation of the Malaysia round, originally slated for October 18), will fire off on November 8 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“With Star Racing being such a big team with the amateurs and the young kids, you’ve got a good mix. You’ve got Cooper Webb and Justin Cooper, who are more experienced and who are older guys.”

“I’m going to do all of the races. The deal is done. I’m racing all of them in the 250cc class. Because I have had so long off, I really do feel like it is going to be a benefit for me to keep racing and to stay sharp and then be able to come into Anaheim. My plan is to do West Coast. I want to come in super-sharp and super-ready. Being a little bit older, I’ve got Justin Brayton, who has kind of been a mentor and a helper and a guy that has been in my corner that I’ve been able to ask advice from.“