As we all know, Max Anstie is gone, off to race the AMA 450 supercross and motocross championships. Personally, I think it sucks that we lose such a good rider with such a strong personality, but I guess that is what MXGP has become with so many young riders coming through and pushing out the more experienced guys.

While Anstie is looking forward to racing America and was even swaying towards going there anyway, even when some MXGP rides did turn up. He goes with some supercross experience and no doubt if fit, a great shot at podiuming a lot of AMA Nationals rounds.

We caught up with him last night and he gave us some really good information about his plans for 2020 and also a nice little story about the number he will carry into the American season. We decided to make this a two-part interview, because Max really knows how to talk, and I love asking questions.

MXlarge: It is obviously sad to see you go, as you are one of the really nice guys in the paddock and also one of the best riders. So, what happened with racing MXGP, why didn’t it happen?

Anstie: It wasn’t so much I couldn’t get a ride. About five or six weeks ago, my main focus was MXGP. I almost had a deal with Dixon, that I thought would have been good, because I was going to get support from Kawasaki and I also spoke to Jacky Martens and a lot of the teams and it wasn’t that there wasn’t anything, but there was this opportunity in America. That for me, and I have said it before, when I was 16, and before that, it was always about going to America and racing supercross. I am good in the sand and that is all I did as a kid, and also supercross. It was just the fact I got to a point where I felt if I don’t take this opportunity, I might never get this chance again.

MXlarge: You still had rides in Europe?

Anstie: It was down to I had some rides in MXGP, but something was pulling me to the states. I was coming out to get married after the MXoNations and I had this test planned with this Suzuki team. They had been messaging me since May about a deal and I didn’t know much about them and my main focus was still GPs with Standing Construct and there are goals I hadn’t achieved, and I was getting closer. This year I won a moto and I should have won an overall and I wanted to get that overall victory. Then it came about and we came out and got married and I got a few messages all at once that some of the deals would not work out and it wasn’t about money, but some things were not coming together to I wouldn’t have been competitive and I am expected to do well in Europe and I want to be able to perform. I know how hard it is even this year on Standing Construct and they are a good team, so starting again, on a new bike and a new team, when I had something similar in America, where I was excited to do it, I thought, why not. Instead of doing the same thing again, a different brand again and a different set-up, I thought I might as well do that in America. I got on the bike, did some testing, met the team and I felt not too bad. I just thought, alright, this feels good. I thought if I didn’t take it up, I would regret it.

MXlarge: I can imagine the whole supercross thing, because you did it at a young age, it comes back to you quicker, like riding a push-bike, or playing football. I have two daughter and they both played football, one started when she was like five and had a great technique, the other started when she was 12 and her technique wasn’t so good, and I think that whole doing something at a young age makes it so much easier. Was that the case?

Anstie: Yes, I mean, I have always kept my hand in. In England I have my own track and a facility with an outdoor track and a supercross track and it isn’t like an American supercross track, but it is supercross and I am always playing on it. I raced in America when I was 16 and I accepted it easier. Even when I go for the photo shoots with Standing Construct this year, there was a supercross track and I jumped on it and was playing around. It just comes easier for me than some other things do. I am not taking anything easy, it won’t be easy, there is a difference between riding a track and racing it, but at the end of the day, I have some experience. The experience from the GPs I will take that with me and learn from it.

MXlarge: Do you think because some of the GP tracks are more technical than they used to be, and we have wave sections and some really technical sections that that might help you a little more than the guys who went in the 1990s?

Anstie: I mean, I hope so, I will take all the positives possible and not look at the negatives. I know it won’t be easy, but I will do the best I can. Nobody has done this, normally they come when they are young, and they do the 250 class. Thinking about it, I can’t remember the last time a premier class rider went to America.

MXlarge: The last to actually leave the premier class was Gareth Swanepoel in 2010 (a decade ago) and before that Ben Townley in 2005, before him Chad Reed in 2001.

Anstie: Yes, and they all went to the 250 class, none of them went to the 450 class.

MXlarge: Well, the last guy to go to the 450 class was Sebastien Tortelli in 1999. He did race the opening round of the 1998 AMA supercross as a wildcard rider and won it at the LA Coliseum in the mud. So maybe you need some mud for A1?

Anstie: Then I have something for your interview. I nice bit for your story, it is looking like I might be number 103 and the only rider I can think who rode that was Tortelli.

MXlarge: Chad Reed also rode with 103 in his first year in America, but he was in the East Coast 125cc championship and won it. That would be cool to have that number considering those two guys had it, and I guess all you have to do now is win A1 in the mud?

Anstie: Oh my god!!! At the end of the day, it is so confusing here with numbers. I can’t be 99 because you need to a three-digit number. I wanted to be 109 but some South American guy has that number and won’t give it up, and then I thought 103. I know Brian Morea is 104 and we are just trying to get any number we can get but is looks like 103 will be my number.

MXlarge: I get the feeling a handful of leading GP riders could handle supercross, but the biggest problem would be the whoops, where they would all suck, but how are you in the whoops after your experience when you were younger?

Anstie: I am good at the moment, but it is difficult in training, because here, everyone trains on their own, on their own test tracks, so you can’t gauge yourself on the others. Even when you go to Milestone, there are no whoops there. I have been on the Suzuki test track in central California and I feel good compared to my team-mates, but you can’t go to Glen Helen like you can do an International race at Hawkstone Park or Lommel and half the GP riders are there. Here you don’t find out where you really are until you get to A1. I would have liked to have done Geneva and Bercy, but I have only been on the bike a week.

MXlarge: You must have some feel for how this bike is compared to say your Standing Construct KTM was?

Anstie: I do, there is potential there. It is so different for supercross. If we were going into testing for outdoors, then I would know what we need to improve on, but we go into supercross and the bike is shorter, more aggressive and stiffer and you need to case jumps and hit the whoops.

Part two of this interview tomorrow Max talks about the difference between the AMA and FIM vibe, how the riders relate to each other, the schedule, the training, practicing and the whole package that he is preparing for 2020.