'It's been harder than I thought it was going to be.'
You can attribute much of Shane McElrath’s success in his career to time spent on 250 capacity machinery, but with a unique 450SX opportunity at Quad Lock Honda arising just in time for season 2025, this is how he intends to make inroads in the premier class of Monster Energy Supercross.
While the 30-year-old pointed out of 250SX at the end of 2020, he’s gone on to clinch a pair of World Supercross Championship (WSX) titles – 2022 with Rick Ware Racing and 2024 with Fire Power Honda – in the SX2 category, in between otherwise largely disrupted campaigns on various 450 teams in Monster Energy AMA Supercross.
After debuting with MotoConcepts Honda in 2021, when a shoulder injury and then a back strain disrupted his rookie campaign, McElrath moved to the Butler Brothers MX (BBMX) team onboard KTMs for 2022, before it folded mid-season. A short stint with Rockstar Energy Husqvarna, followed by ClubMX Yamaha completed his year in Pro Motocross.
Continuity improved for McElrath in completing the 2023 season with the HEP-operated Twisted Tea Suzuki effort, placing 11th in the standings after claiming P5 in Denver, and then he remained for 2024, finishing 13th with a high of fourth in San Francisco. A late switch to Maddparts Kawasaki outdoors marked yet another difference manufacturer over a three-year span.
The opportunity to join Yarrive Konsky’s Honda-backed team in the Australian and world SX2 championships proved a near-immediate success, going on to win both titles, which has led to the North Carolina native continuing in America for 2025, but reverting back to the 450 class. So far, the results have been up and down, going 13-17-17 over the first three races.
At this stage McElrath’s deal will include the opening half of the 450SX series, but there is no guarantee that he will continue beyond that unless additional funding is sourced. That’s why results are paramount from the outset alongside teammate Joey Savatgy, whose deal goes the distance through the entire 31-round SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX).
“Today was a better day overall,” McElrath told MotoOnline post-race following Anaheim 2. “We made a lot of improvements for qualifying, free practice and throughout qualifying. Just today had a much better plan, and we worked within that plan for the most part.
“I actually went down the first lap of the second time qualifier and bit my bars pretty good, so I didn’t get to finish that. Tonight wasn’t the best – it was a struggle in the main, struggling with a little bit of bike set-up, but just kind of the traction with it being slippery. And yeah, just not super confident yet.
“That’s where I don’t have a lot of consistency and that’s something I’m trying to figure out. That’s something I need to continue working on, because I have speed at times, and then I have no speed, and then I have speed… My inconsistency is really where my bad finishes are coming from. It’s been a tough three rounds, I’m pretty embarrassed about the results.
“It’s been, I think, harder than I thought it was going to be because the 250 class comes more natural, but the 450, just bike set-up, racecraft, everything’s different, and that’s what I’m trying to be patient with. But at the same time, it’s like, I’m trying to figure out how to take those steps, so yeah, I’ve gotta work on some things this week.”
For McElrath, despite having a positive working relationship with the team in Australia and also the US-based organization, the transition from the CRF250RWE to the CRF450RWE hasn’t been as straightforward as one might suspect. Working with Factory Connection in America, it also means that development takes time, in comparison to the internal resources of the AUSX program.
“The hardest thing I’ve had trouble with is different suspension companies,” he continued. “Like over there, everything was in house. They could go to the track every day if we needed to and now we’re with Factory Connection. Today was honestly a good step of ‘Okay, this is where we’re at and this is where we need to go’.
“I think that’s where it does magnify the inconsistency. And that’s where for me, most of my career, I’ve been really consistent. I’m usually not the fastest, but I’ve been able to do lap after lap after lap – even different rhythm sections, on one lap, I hit it really good and I get a little bit confident, and then the next lap I’m totally bad.
“And so yeah, I’m trying to figure out how to ride the bike consistently from the power, to the intensity, and the aggression. And that’s something that is, I feel like it’s kind of my biggest struggle right now, because I’ve never had to do that. My bike set-up is not terrible.”
Currently positioned 14th in the standings, McElrath is five points and two positions back from Savatgy, which forms a solid benchmark to strive for. They both train out of the Moto Sandbox facility in Florida alongside some of the biggest names in the sport mid-week, which should in turn assist in the acceleration of McElrath’s progression back aboard a 450.
“We’ve been on the same team the last couple of years and we’ve built a good a good relationship,” McElrath said of Savatgy. “Even during the week, we train together, so that’s where my speed… he’s kind of been my benchmark that I’m looking at during the week – him and [Dylan] Ferrandis, [Ken] Roczen, Levi Kitchen and [Jo] Shimoda was there, too.
“I’m getting a lot better and I’m closing the gap to them, but they still have had a little bit of an edge on me. A lot of that’s due to time, sso yeah, it’s definitely been good to have that benchmark of like, ‘Okay, where am I in reference to Joey? And during the week, I hope that I’m helping him also, but he is, he’s helping me.”