Image: Supplied.

Racing inside the tight confines of the Adelaide Entertainment Centre rates as an unknown for the defending SX2 champion Max Anstie, with the Boost Mobile Honda Racing rider still ‘kind of figuring out what to expect’ come Saturday night.

Anstie’s first and only campaign to date in Australia was last season, however, there were no venues as tight as the arena-type location that South Australia has moved to for 2023.

The layout inside the Adelaide Entertainment Centre is much tighter than what he is accustomed to competing on in both Monster Energy Supercross and the World Supercross Championship (WSX), and brings back memories of when he raced in the UK as a junior.

“I’m excited to be back,” said Anstie. “It’s cool to be back in Australia and running the number one plate – number one is something that I have never ran before, so to be over here with Yarrive [Konsky] and the whole crew, it’s been a while since last year and a lot has gone on. We have been over in the US racing Supercross and here, there and everywhere. It’s definitely nice to be back.

“This place is extremely small, I don’t think I have ridden on a big bike at a race like this and a race as tight as this. It reminds me of British Supercross when I used to race on a 65 and 85, it’s kind of the same thing, so bringing back some memories from there. Excited to be here, the team have done a good job and I’m looking forward to what tomorrow brings.

“I’m kind of figuring out what to expect as well, I think it is going to be very intense racing. It is going to be hard to make up time. It seems soft too, so I have got a feeling that it is going to really blow out with the amount of bikes and riders on track. I don’t know… get them elbows out and do what we can, but at the end of the day, it’s round one so do the best job that we can and get through it.”

Since his Australian SX2 title success last year, Anstie was a standout in the 250SX East championship on his way to a convincing P3 result in the standings, notably winning the Showdown round at East Rutherford as part of the Yarrive Konsky-owned Fire Power Honda Racing program.

Additionally, he was second overall at the opening WSX round in Birmingham within SX2, but opted out of the recent SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) post-season after Charlotte in order to focus on pure supercross in Australia and the world series.