2024 FIM World Supercross Championship fan guide

By Dick Cheeseman on 25th Oct 24

News Supercross International Supercross Trials

The 2024 FIM World Supercross Championship fires into life this weekend with Vancouver in Canada hosting the first of four championship rounds. The series definitely does things a little different to most others and despite maximum effort and a clear business plan seems to have struggled to take hold perhaps unfairly as rival series have gone all out to scupper it.

However, here we are for the third running of the WSX series that heads to the western side of the Atlantic for the first time albeit north of the US border in the great city of Vancouver that sits on the western coast of the oil-rich nation that’s famous for its beautiful landscapes, mounted police, Bryan Adams and Terrance and Phillip.

The WSX season opener will get underway with two classes that feature seven teams with 28 full-time riders who’ll battle it out with local wildcards for their share of a $250,000 prize purse at each round. The seven teams represent three nations and four manufacturers.

Ken Roczen runs the WSX #1 on his PMG Suzuki. He’ll have Colt Nicholls as a teammate in WSX while Kyle Chisholm and Derek Kelley lineup in SX2.

Eli Tomac has signed up for the Australian CDR Yamaha team and has to be in with a real shot of taking the title. He’s joined by Matt Moss in the WSX class while Aussies Kaleb Barham and Ryder Kingsford run in SX2.

Rick Ware Racing are back and looking for titles once more with Luke Clout and Mitchell Oldenburg riding Kawasaki 450s in the WSX division. In SX2, title hopefuls Enzo Lopes and Coty Schock will be hunting the #1 plate currently owned by Brit Max Anstie who makes a wildcard appearance in Canada.

Moto Concepts Racing bring the ever-popular Vince Friese to the party. He’ll ride alongside/through/underneath/over teammate Ryan Breece in WSX while Canadian hopeful Noah Viney and American Cullen Park race in SX2.

As the team name suggests, Fire Power Honda will also be running Hondas in the WSX series with the highly experienced Dean Wilson and Joet Savatgy chasing the 450cc WSX title while another Canadian Cole Thomson and inaugural champ Shane McElrath chase SX2 glory.

French outfit, Bud Racing Kawasaki, will run Cedric Soubeyras and Anthony Bourdon in WSX, while Brice Maylin and Calvin Fonvielle represent in SX2. Fellow Frenchies, Team GSM Yamaha bring Greg Aranda and Boris Maillard to the WSX party while Maxime Desprey and Julien Lebeau compete in SX2.

Wildcards in the WSX class are Brazil’s Lukas Dunka who rides the sole KTM in the opening round and AMA privateer Cade Clason. The SX2 class is topped off with Anstie and rookie Preston Boespflug who ranked 15th in the 250 East class this year.

So that’s 16 riders in each class who’ll compete in a slightly tweaked format that better suits the reduced line-ups. Time qualifying will sort gate pick for the riders who place fifth to 16th. The top four however will compete in a Superpole single-lap time trial that will sort starting order for the first four.

Each class then races two back-to-back eight-lap GP races that run five minutes apart so that’ll be SX2/SX2, WSX/WSX before a third race for each that is 12 laps long. The top eight riders from each class based on the results of the three GP races will then enter a 12 lap Superfinal. But it’s the overall results for the full night that dictate the GP result.

Superpole pays out three points for a win, two for second and one for third while each GP race and the Superfinal pay out 25 for the win, 20 for second, 20 for third and then 18, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5. This means that the Superfinal could be critical to the overall result depending on how the WSX/SX2 riders stack up – second in class could potentially only pay 11 points. Interesting stuff.

For fans wanting to watch the action away from the stadium there’s good news as WSX have got you covered. In Europe, fans can watch for free on FIM MOTO TV although be warned you’ll need to register first. Hopefully it all works okay. Due to the time difference, it’s a 2am start on Sunday morning (October 27) which this weekend is skewed slightly because of the change from BST to GMT. Good luck with that. For folk elsewhere check the table below…

For more details about the WSX series please visit wsxchampionship.com/

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