Round five of Monster Energy Supercross in Tampa was a night to remember for Malcolm Stewart, as the 32-year-old claimed his long-awaited first career 450SX victory in front of his home crowd. The event also marked the season opener for the 250SX East class, with Max Anstie kicking off his 2025 campaign with a win. Both riders spoke to media following the races for these Debrief interviews.

450SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Malcolm, storybook, not just to do so in Tampa, not just that first win, but 2023, you’re out, you’re injured. 2024 was about rebuilding that confidence. At what moment did you say to yourself, I’m going to win?

You know, it’s kind of like an emotional roller coaster. Once I did my knee in 2023, I was just trying to rebuild myself, then last year, I was so upset with myself. People don’t understand, when you have an injury like that, and you just think where you know where you should be, and you just can’t figure it out. For a split second, I was really upset with myself, the team, everybody else was fighting. Everything was big snowball effect. Then, my dad came to me and he sat me down, and he was like, ‘listen, either you either quit racing, literally quit racing, or go out there and just ride and have fun and don’t forget why you did this.’ And it’s not because it’s a paycheck, it’s because we had fun doing this, right? Like I’ve done this my whole life. I live for this dream, this moment. Fast forwarding to this now, here we are, 2025. I had a really good off season, if I’m going to do it, if I’m going to ever be able to win a race, it’s going to happen. I’m just so thankful for this opportunity to get this done, not only in my home race. When Chase [Sexton] went down, I come around in that sand turn, and I couldn’t hear my motorcycle anymore, right? The crowd was so loud. Again, just having this opportunity to win. The one person that I want to give this win to is my brother. He’s been pushing me and pushing me and pushing me. I know he’s probably just as proud of me as I’m proud of myself. So I love you, brother.

We’ve seen you just get faster and faster, but we haven’t seen you on the top step. But tonight, we witnessed – about halfway through that main event – you kind of honed in. Take us through the mindset, it seemed like instead of being the hunted, you became the hunter when you were behind Chase.

Yeah, for me, it’s a lot to do with Nate Ramsey. Because he’s always told me like, ‘dude, just be there.’ Same as Aldon [Baker] as well, like, if I could just figure out how to be there after halfway and I can see that person and you see those little mistakes, you feed off of that, right? Like, I knew Chase was kind of indecisive in the whoops, like he was going to the right, he’s going to the middle, he’s going to the left. And I was like, ‘this is my point.’ I knew if I could just get through the whoops really fast, put that pressure on him, I knew I’d probably starting getting in his mind. Then, I can start seeing them switch his lines up all the way around the racetrack. I’m like, ‘this is the moment’ right? And of course, like Jared, my mechanic, he was putting on the pit board, and he’s like, ‘you got it, you gotta believe in it.’ And I had that mindset, through the whoops, I was on the right-hand side, I knew we were going to go into that corner together, and I’m gonna put pressure on him. Then I started to see that front end wash, and he went down, unfortunately. But he was putting on a great race. Man, you know that feeling when you’re just feeling the track, you just feel everything. The whole bike is connected, I can feel that vibe, and again, as I said before, there’s points in some of the corners that I couldn’t even hear my motorcycle, right? I was probably in first gear, didn’t even realize it, right? So, it’s an awesome feeling.

How did you just remain calm in the midst of all that?

Well, I could definitely say I had a lot of pressure for sure with the hometown crowd. If you’re going to do it, you need to do it in front of them, right? And for some reason, I just got down to that line and I was like, ‘dude, just let it go, who cares what we do tonight?’ Like at the end of the day, if I go out there and give it 110 percent, like let’s just see where the cards fall. And Ramsey’s been preaching that. After chapel service, we do the little thing in the truck. Sorry, Nate, I’m spilling the little beans, my bad. Maybe that’s the only reason why we get hyped up. But we do a little team get together, and he just like, ‘dude, go out there, get everything you got, see where the cards fall.’ And he’s been preaching that to me since I’ve gotten on this motorcycle, since he became team manager. And he’s like, he just sat me down, even right before the 250 main event. He was like, ‘dude, like, you have everything. You have more than the capability to do it. Like just let it go.’ So I’m like, ‘fine, we’re gonna let it go. See what we do, see where the cards fall.’ And I just felt good, like I felt really, really good. And, you know, when you’re connected with the motorcycle, I feel like you’re just unstoppable at that moment. Having that, and the feel of the track. Like, I just felt it. I was just that guy that felt really good.

When did you figure out that you were going to win this race? Were you feeling nervous at all and how did you stay calm?

Oh, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, dude. I was freaking out. What are you talking about? I remember it was like four laps to go, and I went around the mechanics area and I’m like, ‘I’m not going to look at the pitboard for two laps. I’m not going to look at it. I don’t care where it’s at. I know where Cooper [Webb] is at. I’m just going to wait.’ Then he gave me two laps to go. I knew all I had to do is just go around one more lap. I’ll see the white flag. It’s home from there. I didn’t really get nervous until the last lap, to the last little corner because I felt like the crowd really rose. Last time I had a feeling like that where the crowd was that loud of Salt Lake City in 2022. So having that moment again, and doing it again in front of my hometown and my family and friends and just everybody, it’s a dream come true. No matter what happens from now, I’m in the history books.

I think everybody’s happy for you. This is obviously a big step tonight. And the belief, I’m sure, helped when you were catching Sexton. But in general, off season, even leading to Anaheim, coming out of Anaheim, do you feel there was something that clicked this year compared to last year? Or is this a complete surprise even to you to take this big a leap in one week?

I kind of felt like it was like, I’ve always had the speed. I’ve always felt like I’ve always had it, right? I just needed to be in that moment. And you know, believe it or not, like, last week, I had two really good starts in that, in that Triple Crown, right? Even though we didn’t ride very well, there was a positive, right? We finally started figuring our starts out. Then we just took that and applied it and that was exactly what happened tonight. Like, I put myself in the right moment. I felt like I was just really, really good around the racetrack where riders were struggling. I could see them, like, you know, holding the clutch and kind of overriding the motorcycle and I’m like, ‘I can get around these guys.’ I just took the moment, just took the chance. You don’t know what you’re capable of until you push the limit, right? And I was just kind of trying everything I could, and here we are.

250SX

Image: Octopi Media.

Max, congratulations on the win! You told us just a couple of months ago that you are always learning. That’s been part of your recipe for success. Well, what newly acquired knowledge led you to have such a perfect day today?

I think the biggest thing is the obvious, you know, being with Star, with this crew, having a great group of guys to train with. You know, for me, over my career, I’ve trained primarily a lot alone. But to fully accept and embrace the Gareth Swanepoel program and be in the locker room with a bunch of kids and keeping me young. But also on track, you know, the creativeness of Dax [Bennick] and some of the guys I get to see and learn and also be around Cooper Webb, champions, you know, Justin Cooper, Eli Tomac was there in December, you know, [Haiden] Deegan. All these guys are race winners and champions. I might be a little older, but still I want to get to that at one stage. So just being around all them and being grateful for the position I’m in. I think it all goes hand in hand.

Rarely do we see a red flag in a main event. It’s kind of common in heat races. But can you take us through what went on down there on the starting line?

I think the biggest thing for me was I was in a battle with Pierce [Brown] and we were sending it down the whoops. Then I had a front row seat. You know, I was basically next to him or like I was right there when he went down. And then they red flagged it and he didn’t get back up the next lap. It kind of took the wind out of my sails a little bit because, you know, we got the red flag. We all know Pierce. We were in the locker room with him. You know, you don’t want to see one of your teammates go down. And to the whoops were tricky. So then when with the red flagged it, we had like 10 minutes sitting there. It was like, what are we doing? So when I was getting ready to go back out, it was hard being in front in a way because the whoops were tricky. I didn’t want to go down or do anything silly. So I was trying to just be as solid and as consistent. I knew round one, a lot of crazy things happen. So just being down there, yeah, you have to refocus and go again. But definitely after the red flag, it was just, hit my marks. It was nice that Dax was there and just doing our laps like at the practice track and trying not to do anything too crazy in the whoops.

Max, last year, I know you got to ride with this team a lot and you were going fast and you did lead the points. Then there was that heartbreaker and it kind of fell away for you. But was last year a step toward confidence to believing, okay, I could be a title guy in 250 Supercross. Did you need that step last year to maybe even get to where you are right now?

Yeah, of course. I mean, everything in life is preparation for the future. I mean, it’s definitely helped. But also coming into this season, if you spent too much time looking at the entry list, you were like, geez, there’s a lot of race winners and a lot of very fast guys that, you know, even Cameron [McAdoo] up here. Like back when I was in Europe watching these guys race supercross, it was the dream. It was, all right, I’m locked in when I’m here now. I’m on star. I’m living the dream. It is pretty cool, putting my team shirt on and coming to the track today was like, all right, I’ve made it. All right, I’ve got to go and do my work and execute. But yeah, of course, everything, you know, everything in my life, whether it’s GP’s and up until this point, I’m 31, but it’s crazy. I have a lot of admiration for these kids that are 18 and 19 and doing the things that I have always wanted to do. It’s taken me a little longer to get to this point. But honestly, it doesn’t matter if you’re 18, you still got to race me now. It doesn’t matter at the end of the year whose name’s on that trophy. I don’t care how old I am. So I literally feel like I’m in a better position body wise, a better position mentally than what I’ve ever been in. And man, yeah, I’d love to have been in this position when I was 17, 18 years old, but I’m not. I’m here now. Everything in life is preparation for the future and all right, we’ve got a stacked field, but just focus on myself and execute and hit my marks.