Image: Octopi Media.

Max Anstie has confirmed he will exit the HEP Motorsports Suzuki team at the conclusion of this season, hinting toward his 2022 plans at Fox Raceway last weekend.

The 28-year-old has been heavily linked to Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS next year – which he didn’t announce – and his desire to train at the 83 Compound further establishes that connection.

“I’m here to do the best job I can for my HEP Suzuki team for this next race, but no, I will be going a different direction for next year,” a perplexed Anstie said post-race on Saturday. “I can’t say what it actually is, but yeah, I want to move to Florida and I want to be better.

“That’s my plan. I want to go and train at the 83 Compound – that’s actually a friend of mine, an English guy. I actually spent a little bit of time there last year, Florida, and I fell in love with the place. For training and riding, it was just unbelievable.

“For me, it’s about being around people who are going to make me better. Especially for Supercross, it was tough being in California with Suzuki because we didn’t have a test track that I could ride with other top guys – I was riding at the local practice tracks.

“Now, with Star Yamaha leaving California, with all of the motocross tracks, there was no-one else out there. There was 10 of those guys riding around last year, so it’d get pretty good, but there’s not many guys now, even for outdoors. That’s the plan for me.”

Part of Anstie’s outlook is to improve further in Supercross following an impressive showing this season and, now that he’s proven his capabilities in the stadiums, he is becoming a mainstay in the US following a lengthy, highly-successful grand prix career.

“I moved to America, I want to race Supercross, that’s what I kinda did when I was younger and I had a great career in MXGP,” he added. “You go from one team to the next, my goal was the world championship and it got to a point where the opportunity was here to come to America with [HEP] and I really appreciate it.

“It’s hard to get your foot in the door, especially on a 450. I’d raced 450 for years in Europe and won races, but they write you off, it’s like ‘can he ride Supercross?’. I’m like ‘yeah, I can, let me have a go’. It was one of those where kids normally come over at a younger age, I just wanted to get my foot back in the door.

“So, it’s all about learning and progressing for me. I want to do that next step and be around guys that I can learn from and try to be better for next season. That’s about all I can say on that…”

Anstie made every 450SX main event of the Monster Energy Supercross season after debuting in Orlando, his best result of 12th coming at the Salt Lake City finals. He’s 11th in the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross points, finishing sixth at Pala on the weekend.

If Anstie does land at the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS team for next year, it’s unclear what the future will hold for Joey Savatgy or Justin Bogle, since the team has already signed Shane McElrath for 2022. In terms of HEP, Coty Schock has been referenced as a possible signing after his FXR Chaparral Honda team closed.