Ford Field controversy as contentious AMA rule catches out Max Anstie
By Team TMX on 17th Feb 25
News Supercross AMA Supercross
With Star Racing Yamaha’s Max Anstie comfortably sitting on a seven-second lead and with just seven seconds left on the clock, AMA officials threw out the red flags as Pro Circuit Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Cameron Mcadoo crashed hard in the whoops. While many thought it was a done deal at that point and the 250SX East series leader would take his second win of the year, a rulebook change brought in before the start of the 2024 season meant that a re-start was required – wiping out Anstie’s advantage in what would prove to be a three-lap sprint to the chequered flag. Interestingly, it took almost two minutes for the AMA officials to decide to stop the race at which point many fans questioned why they couldn't leave it another seven seconds for the timer to count to zero and for the result to stand.
Pro Circuit Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Levi Kitchen took full advantage of the situation and stuck an aggressive pass on Anstie to take over the lead which he was able to hold onto to take his first win of the year.
“Max rode so good at the beginning of that event… then the red flag came out and I was like, ‘It’s time to reset and I can capitalize on this’,” said Kitchen. “I took a few deep breaths and just treated it like I was doing a two-lap sprint in training. I sent it, made a pretty aggressive pass, and was able to get that triple jump out of the turn and get a little gap. We’ll take that. I had to bounce back after last weekend… After the re-start, I knew it was going to be the green flag, white flag, chequers, so I tried to plan to get a pass and get some room, and that’s what I did.”
Anstie remained magnanimous. “That red flag threw a bit of a spanner into the plan there. I was in a tough spot, because I knew Levi was fast, and the track was quite open,” he said. “There were a lot of places to send it down the inside, and I would have done the same thing…
“I had it in the bag. I was literally cruising around the last two laps, and then the red flag came out. It is what it is. Big picture -I’m solid, I feel really good, I’m fast, I’m comfy where I’m at so, yeah, what a bummer.”
Anstie now has a seven-point lead in the championship with Kitchen slotting into second. Defending champion Tom Vialle (Red Bull KTM) placed fourth on the night behind ’24 250SX West champ RJ Hampshire and sits third in points – 12 behind Anstie.
Harri Kullas was eliminated during qualifying as he failed to make a top-40 qualifying position for the night show by a whisker.
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