After two years of sporadic racing, uncertainty and cancelled rounds, the new owners of SX Global had a mountain of work in front of them to rebuild the credibility and reputation of the 2024 FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX).
After two “pilot” rounds in 2022, and a disjointed three-round series last year, the 2024 WSX’s new owners delivered by extending the championship to four rounds at Vancouver Canada, a double-header at Perth and Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island.
2024 also saw the signing of two-time AMA Supercross Champion Eli Tomac joining the championship to try and wrestle the crown from defending #1 Ken Roczen.
So now that the 2024 series has been run and won, can we say the WSX is establishing itself as a viable championship? Tentatively, yes, but there’re plenty of good, bad and ugly aspects that need unpacking.
The Good
The Tomac vs Roczen battle
With Roczen (PMG Suzuki) etching his name twice on the WSX World Championship trophy, it wouldn’t have taken a lot of appearance money to coerce Eli Tomac (CDR Yamaha supported by Star Yamaha) to try and claim the title this year. As expected, Tomac comfortably won Vancouver and both Perth rounds, but Roczen tried his damnedest to keep it tight. The German racer won the Abu Dhabi finale inside the impossibly tight arena, and while that ensured he had the last laugh, Tomac had done enough to stop Roczen’s championship streak.
McElrath on rails
It’s amazing what a bit of confidence can do, and right now Shane McElrath has it in bucket-loads. Teamed up with Yarrive Konsky’s Fire Power Honda Racing for the WSX, the 2022 SX2 250 champ practically dominated the class this year. The charismatic American wasn’t beaten for the overall at any round, backing up his near-domination of the Australian Supercross Championship by adding the WSX title to his list of 2024 achievements.
The Perth double-header
It had been 15 years since West Aussies had had an opportunity to watch a supercross race, and they were gifted two rounds of the WSX championship. The two days of racing were probably the best of the series, although the heat for Sunday afternoon’s round was punishing. Despite containing a heap of WA sand, the track held together well.
The Vancouver opener
In a similar vein, Canadian fans were pumped to finally have the opportunity to head to a supercross race without having to jump the border into the US. On TV the stadium looked a bit bare, but that’s because SX Global only sold seating for the lower bowl, which was pretty much packed out. Word is WSX will head back to Canada again next year.
The Bad
So… are we racing?
Race teams need plenty of advance warning for upcoming championships so they can plan budgets and sortsponsors. We had to wait until midway through the year to find out if the 2024 championship was even happening. The new UK-based SX Global team only gave the industry four months of notice before the first round kicked off.
Vince Friese
MotoConcepts Honda’s Vince Friese is doing no-one any favours by being on track. Yes, he’s a fantastic starter, but he continued to build his reputation as a dangerous rider by taking out Fire Power Honda’s Dean Wilson and tearing his labrum in a nasty clash at Perth. The antics continued at Abu Dhabi when, in qualifying, he rode into another lane of the track and caused a farcical pile-up.
Vancouver dirt
The soil used for the Vancouver track was horrendous, featuring plenty of rocks, while still being soft. During media day the jumps already developed some deep, gnarly ruts, and that trend continued for the following race day, when the track broke down in a big way. Some of the jumps became borderline dangerous.
Mossy’s SuperFinal mix-up
There was controversy at Perth’s third round when Matt Moss lost his starting spot in the SuperFinal to Friese. Mossy had earned a spot in the top eight for the final race, but a mix-up saw him excluded while he was in the pre-race waiting zone. Afterwards, the FIM conceded that an error had been made. It was a bitter pill to swallow for both Moss and the CDR Yamaha team.
The Ugly
The Abu Dhabi track and start
In the history of supercross, has there ever been a shorter start straight than what we saw at Abu Dhabi? The racers barely had time to drop the clutch before they were braking for the first left-hander. That put even more emphasis on trying to get a good gate-pick through qualifying. The Abu Dhabi track was ludicrously tight, with six lanes stuffed into a small area, but that actually made for entertaining racing.
The SuperFinal format
One of the big changes this year was the eight highest-scoring riders from both classes, after the three finals, progressed to a SuperFinal where more points were up for grabs. It forced every racer to take every race seriously. However, it was tough to figure out how many points each 450 and 250 rider was earning during the SuperFinal, especially at Vancouver. The briefing for fans improved through the series, but the Canadians spent a lot of the night scratching their heads.
Teams trying to fill rosters
Spare a thought for the team managers who’d signed to commit two 250 and two 450 racers for every round; whenever someone was injured, they’d have to scramble to find free talent to fill that spot. As a run-down, CDR Yamaha had to replace Kaleb Barham with Reid Taylor and Phil Nicoletti, PMG Suzuki called up Thomas Ramette for Colt Nichols (twice!), Fire Power replaced Dean Wilson with Aaron Tanti after Perth, Spain’s Ander Valentin filled in for Boris Maillard at Team GSM and Bud Racing had to ring in Adrien Escoffier for Cebric Soubeyras before the season even started.
Too much of a good thing?
The WSX boys put in a shedload of bike-time. There’s practice, qualifying, Super Pole, three finals, then a SuperFinal to line up for, which equates to more than 50 laps at each round! When you throw in a double-header round at Perth, with Sunday’s racing in temperature nudging the late 30s, you can understand why the racers were pretty knackered by the time the podium celebrations were completed. It’ll be interesting to see if next year’s formats will be tweaked.
WSX 450
- Eli Tomac (Yamaha)397
- Ken Roczen (Suzuki)357
- Joey Savatgy (Honda) 328
- Vince Friese (Honda)240
- Mitch Oldenburg (Kawasaki)223
- Luke Clout (Kawasaki) 191
- Greg Aranda (Yamaha)158
- Ryan Breece (Honda)153
- Anthony Bourdon (Kawasaki) 153
- Dean Wilson (Honda) 148
SX2 250
- Shane McElrath (Honda) 398
- Coty Schock (Kawasaki) 303
- Cole Thompson (Honda) 302
- Enzo Lopes (Yamaha) 292
- Maxime Desprey (Yamaha) 231
- Cullin Park (Honda) 230
- Kyle Chisholm (Suzuki) 197
- Ryder Kingsford (Yamaha) 137
- Brice Malin (Kawasaki) 130
- Calvin Fonveille (Kawasaki) 128
