Anstie turned down two factory MXGP fill-in rides in 2020

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It was announced at the end of the 2019 season that Max Anstie had a new challenge as he inked a deal with the HEP Suzuki team to race the AMA Supercross and Motocross series. Unfortunately due to injury the Brit missed the SX season but he did return for the outdoors and ended up ninth in the championship showing good pace.

It has been revealed that Anstie actually had offers to come back to the MXGP World Championship scene. Both the Standing Construct GasGas and the IceOne Husqvarna teams were hit with injuries and approached Anstie to end the season racing MXGP. The Brit has rode with both teams in the past so it shows he still has a good relationship with them.

It would have been possible for Anstie to race the last six rounds as the AMA outdoor season was over but he decided to stay in America to focus on his future there.

It’s believed that Zach Osborne also had the opportunity to race the last six rounds of the MXGP World Championship with the IceOne Husqvarna team but didn’t fancy the triple header at Lommel – understandably as he’d have had no real prep for the gnarly deep sand. The American spoke about having this opportunity in an interview with On Track Off Road (more here).

“Yeah, actually, Tim (Mathys) at Standing Construct and also Antti (Pyrhönen) at IceOne reached out to me, I have good relationships with all of my previous teams and the guys involved in them. I decided not to go back because I was still in contract with my current team through October and also I made a big move to come to the US for my career and I didn’t just want to get on a plane back to Europe when I had work to do for Supercross”, Anstie told GateDrop.com.

It’s pretty clear that Anstie’s focus is firmly on America right now as he’s preparing for the start of the Supercross season next month and it remains to be seen if we’ll see him back in the MXGP paddock.

You can read our recent interview with Anstie, here.

Pic: Tommaso Mozzoni