Two rounds of competition, eight finals, and four different overall winners across SX1 and SX2. That’s how it played out at Redcliffe’s opening rounds of the 2024 AUSX championship in Moreton Bay, and MotoOnline was there to Debrief with Dean Wilson, Noah Ferguson, Joey Savatgy and Shane McElrath on each night.

SX1 | Saturday

Image: Foremost Media.

Dean Wilson, picking up where you left off here in Australia, getting it done here in round one – you made that look easy…

Oh, it definitely wasn’t easy. Definitely wasn’t easy, but it went very good, very good day. Grateful for today, and how things went, and it’s just that’s things don’t always go that good, so I’m very happy with it. Joey’s keeping me very honest this year, and so far, so good, so I just need to stay focused for tomorrow.

I think it’s just putting yourself in good positions early, and then running away with it, but your whoop speed tonight was incredible. I don’t think anyone else was close to that.

Yeah, no, the whoops were a huge advantage to me, and that was huge. Just always been good at whoops, and that’s what really hurt me in AMA last year was I didn’t get to skim the whoops like I wanted to because they were just jumpers, so whoops have always been my advantage, so it’s nice to actually let it show. So, good.

Tonight as well, the Australian riders did pretty well throughout the day.

Yeah, no, it’s a stacked field, man. I don’t take any of these guys… I don’t take them lightly at all. They’re all very good, and they’ve all had a lot of prep coming in, and so Luke [Clout] was very good, was fired up, and Jed [Beaton] had a crash, and I don’t really know exactly what happened, but I don’t take it lightly. I take it serious. These guys are really quick.

The guy next to you here, Joey Savatgy as well. I think you’re going to have your hands full with him all season. Where do you think this separates you guys on the track?

Well, I would say Joey’s a little bit better in the turns than me, and that’s something that I know, and I want to work on, but obviously, the whoops, that’s my advantage, and rhythm’s good. But yeah, that last race, we were very evenly matched. I got caught with a lapper in the last section and couldn’t jump that last bit, so we got pretty close, but we’re very evenly matched, so it’s going to be exciting season for sure.

Watching you put that track together as well. Cutting down really early in the turns, changing around throughout the night, is that just you searching the track for a quicker away, smoother? What was that about?

Yeah, just avoiding the bumps. It got pretty tacky at the end. After the triple there was a 3-3-2 and the corner, it was getting bumpy so I had to cut down early and really find some traction. You’ve just got to move around and find where there’s traction as it got pretty slick, but very thankful that the rain didn’t ruin things, so it all held up tonight, thank God.

Hey, we’ll see you tomorrow for round two. The red one is staying red for another day…

Another red for another day. Thank you.

SX2 | Saturday

Image: Foremost Media.

Noah Ferguson, your first overall, congratulations. Take us through that night, which must just feel like a dream at this point… Oh, we’ve actually got the red plates come out of the truck right now, how’s that?

Yeah, that’s sick. Yeah, it was a chaotic day. My, come in here to do a top five. I haven’t been on the bike long. I think I’ve done two and a half weeks, and that’s including some testing, and I had a crash at QMP, so I wasn’t expecting much. It was just to get through round one and two, and I’m stoked.

Thinking back to QMP as well, we spoke that afternoon, you were in a struggle from where you were, and had a crash throughout the day, this has to feel like a breath of fresh air, right?

Yeah, definitely. Just all the hard work, believing myself, especially after QMP, like I was in the back of the amo on the way home after everyone was crowned a champion and that put a bit of fire in my belly. So, I’m just speechless.

It’s even more interesting under this truck as you are sitting between Shane McElrath and Cole Thompson there as well. Ones that have all this expectation to go out there, perform, be the champion, and stuff like that, I feel you probably feel you’re an underdog coming into this, and you are going to have the red plate on your bike tomorrow.

Yeah, 100 percent. I think a lot of people have put me as the underdog for the entire season, and all I got to say is, ‘You got to hit some whoops, boys!’

Hey, break us down those whoops as well. Getting up on top of them… Dean Wilson was another one that just said, ‘Hey, they’re not that hard.’ Is it just you’ve been riding, that type of whoop, you are prepared to hold it on, or?

Yeah, look, I’m not much of a jumper. I think everyone can do a jump. If you can skim whoops, I think it’s all about confidence coming into those thing and not being scared, so I find it easier hitting them, just if you’ve got the good technique and you know how to ride a bike, I think you should be able to hit a whoop.

SX1 | Sunday

Image: Foremost Media.

Honda Racing Australia’s Joey Savatgy, Redcliffe 2 here, you get the win. Take me through the night…

Yeah, it was definitely more hectic tonight. Track was tricky, marbly. Kept drying up, and so first Moto was okay, had a good start, and honestly just got bullied in the first turn. I think maybe it was Luke, somebody to my inside just bulldozed me out of the way, so start wasn’t as good as it needed to be. And then, truthfully, just maybe some poor line choices there at the end to seal Luke off and take the win and just too much cat and mouse, and then Dean almost got both of us, and it was definitely physical in the first one. Second one was carnage at the beginning, but thankfully I was smart enough. Being patient paid off for once. I had enough of a gap to squirt through. So, like I said, happy goal was to leave here on the box, and second last night, and the overall tonight, so we’re in a good spot. Go home, go back to work.

Hey, you looked like some exchange of words there with your teammate after the first one. Not happy with how that played out in the last laps?

Yeah, honestly, it was one of those things where we were just seeing two different things, what I saw, what he saw. But we went back, and thankfully Dean’s been around long enough, and we’re both old enough to hash it right away, and we went and looked and watched film, and he thought that I was maybe over the line just too aggressive. And then we went and looked, and the one at the end on the last lap know we both agreed that I was good. Maybe earlier on, maybe I threw it in maybe too hard early on, and I told him it was nothing that I did towards him tonight was ill intent. I just wanted to race, and I told him, we’re going to race each other all year, and I respect Dean, and we respect each other. So thankfully, like I said, we’re old enough and we’ve been through it enough to just, “Hey, you know FU, FU.” We’re good. We hugged it out, and we’re solid. Like I said, it’s all good.

Was it a sense of relief coming in this morning, seeing the tracks turned around a little bit with the whoops more traditionally what we’re used to and it evened the field out, was that something you took into your field a bit more?

Well, honestly, the whoops were fine yesterday. They were big, but it’s one of those things that, again, and it’s no excuse because it’s up to us to figure it out, but I didn’t race Supercross at all last year. I haven’t been on a supercross track in over pretty much a year, a little bit more, then transitioning back to the 450 and on a bike I’ve never ridden, like I said. I rode the ’24 at home for maybe four or five days, but we didn’t hit whoops because it was the SMX track layout at first, so I never hit whoops, and I didn’t hit whoops until we got here Sunday and rode. So, it just was me. I wasn’t comfortable, and I just know that trying to skim the whoops could have resulted in a dumb mistake and gone down, and I felt I made the jump line work. Honestly, it ended up being jumping tonight anyways, and unfortunately…

It was quicker.

Yeah, it was because the corner got so blown out, and it was so marbly that it just made more sense to protect inside, protect inside, and jump. So, I know some people might not be happy that they knocked the whoops down, but at the end of the day, smaller whoops, still jumpers, so it’s just track-dependent. But thankfully, we got rain today because I’d hate to see this place right now if we didn’t get rain today, or last night because it would’ve been brutal.

It’s pretty marbly. Seeing you in qualifying early this morning, uncorked a bit of a different line there over the back, went over the on-off. Is that something you lined up and you saved for the night show if you needed it and to set that up, just take me through that?

Yeah, it was actually. I did it very last lap of practice. Thankfully, nobody saw it, but I was on a slow lap before my very last lap, and I went single-over-table, and I’m like, ‘Dude, we can make this so easy.’ And so I saved it very last lap, got through the whoops, downshifted a second, just rolled the corner and right over it. It was easy. It was way easier than I thought it was going to be, but as the night went on, it just wasn’t something that was doable over and over. But, obviously, the heat race, I uncorked it, and it’s nice when you have something up your sleeve. Even if it’s not faster for me, it just was more efficient. You’re not having to scrub on, pull up to go off into the corner. It’s just one smooth motion. So, like I said, it’s always nice to have something up your sleeve when you need it, but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter because we didn’t do it when it mattered.

SX2 | Sunday

Image: Foremost Media.

Shane McElrath. Hey, what a night here at Redcliffe 2… Take me through the night.

Yeah, tonight was a lot better, like you said. These guys are really good riders, and the track’s a good supercross track. Some of the corners are pretty open as far as the inside and the outside, and so that’s something that you have to race differently, these guys here, a lot of them have got 10 kilos or 20, 25 pounds on me, so definitely tricky on the starts. Those guys, they just launch out of the gate and drive really hard, and that’s where my first start was good. I came out third or fourth and that was a really good start for me. The second one, I spun pretty bad once we got over the gate, and a couple crashes gave me some positions, which thankfully that just helps clear the air. It’s pretty chaotic out there. Tonight was much better, Shane McElrath, and just focused and aggressive.

Looked more normal for what you are and went out there, did what you did, and what we expected. I’ve got to ask the question, last night, obviously an incident there with your team mate, just your thoughts on that?

Yeah, I think it was high emotions that didn’t need to be there. Cole thought that I took him out in the first one, and I told him I didn’t know that we even came together. I apologised for it, and he was pretty upset, and he raced me really aggressive in the second one up until that point, and I knew he was not happy, and I continued to give him space, and we were battling back and forth. It was a tough race, and I was going in to make a pass on Brodie [Connolly] and trying to… I don’t think we would’ve made contact, but it was like, ‘Hey, I’m here to cut the line off.’ And then, that was when Cole got me, and then we all went down, so definitely, frustrating. But it’s something that we got to move past that. It’s like we can’t hold onto that, and I definitely wasn’t happy about it, but it’s leave that in the past, and showed up today, ready to race.

Biggest differences you find coming here to Australia than what you’re used to back in America with AMA Supercross. Two nights now, what have you found has been the biggest contributing factor or differences?

Yeah, honestly, this one was tough because we had a night race last night, and then more of a day race today, so it’s by the time I got back to the hotel and went to bed, it was 11:30pm, and then I’ve got to be at the track at 9:00am for track walk. So, definitely, I think if it was two days where we’re on the same schedule, that’s more feasible. But it was definitely, like today, was about playing the long game. The track was a lot better. We had some mist for most of the day today. And I think the track turned out pretty good for what it was. But it’s definitely a different mindset, and especially a lot of the younger guys, that’s where I do have the experience over them is like, ‘Okay, hey, those guys were hanging it out last night.’ And they were willing to try to win the championship on the first night, and it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re just getting started.’