Image: Foremost Media.

Australia’s Aaron Tanti will step into the premier class of the World Supercross Championship (WSX) this weekend in Abu Dhabi, the CDR Yamaha Monster Energy team confirming he will step up from SX2 in place of the injured Grant Harlan.

Tanti, 27, was fourth in last year’s SX2 title race, winning a final in front of a home crowd in Melbourne and was P6 in Birmingham to open the 2023 season in July.

He did that while juggling 450 commitments back home, with the last round of the 2022 WSX championship held in conjunction with the Australian Supercross Championship (AUSX) opener, as the 2023 WSX season overlapped with ProMX. He will line-up alongside Josh Hill onboard the YZ450F, as Harlan was injured at the Motocross of Nations (MXoN) while representing Guam.

“An exciting new change for one of our riders in the World Supercross Championship this weekend… Aaron Tanti will line up in the WSX class, after previously riding in the SX2 class!” the CDR Yamaha Monster Energy team shared. “We can’t wait to watch him battle it out!”

Since the opening round of the WSX championship in Birmingham, at the start of July, Tanti competed in the final two rounds of MX1 in Penrite ProMX Championship, plus the AUSX opener in Adelaide.

Tanti was ultimately fourth in his motocross title defence, but revealed he sustained a knee injury in the build-up to the South Australian supercross round, and underwent surgery the Tuesday following the event.

“I picked up a little injury leading into round one,” Tanti told MotoOnline. “We got through round one with the help of Racesafe strapping it up for me. I just did what I had to do to get points on the board.

“I dabbed my foot and took a decent impact. I damaged my ACL a little bit, but it’s all still intact luckily, so there was no surgery needed for that. But I had a few little tears on my meniscus, so I had some keyhole surgery to clean that up.

“I went in on Tuesday following the round at Adelaide and got surgery, everything went well and I’ve been back working with my physio in the gym and looking at jumping back on the bike in another week to be ready for the rest of the season.”

Following the conclusion of the 2023 season, it was recently announced that Aaron Tanti will commit to the US next year and has inked a deal to compete in 450SX with the Partzilla PRMX Race Team.