Australian Supercross 2026 RD 1 Townsville

It both did and didn't have any effect. It was not just the MXoN but also the AJMX that pushed M.A to not give it official Aus Supercross Accred. 

The MXoN affected the three riders who represented the country, which in itself was a bummer as both Tanti and Beaton will be front runners in the Aus Series, and Larwood a championship contender in SX 2. 

The reason KTM was not at the opening in an official capacity was the AJMX, they are the naming rights sponsor of that event, have all their race trucks at the Junior Aussie event with a lot of support. I would also suggest that in terms of sales, the AJMX that had nearly 600 class entries, of which well over would have been riders on purchased KTM group bikes ( Plus all their spare bikes) , supporting that series would make better commercial sense. 

The SX championship probably lost out on having maybe 10 riders who were at the AJMX that who will race the SX ( Futures ) Class at the final three rounds. They didn't run 85s at Townsville so no real rider loss there. 

I only watched the opening round on TV, turning it on as soon as I rolled in the front door after making the trip back from AJMX. Apart from the heats looking empty, everything else looked good. Great venue, great track some good racing.

I think it was 15,000 spectators which is a very good number for SX in Aus outside of the AusX Open, crowd looked a little small inside that big stadium but that is fine, hopefully in years to come they can fill that. 

I think Auckland will more of the same in terms of rider numbers, we will get our 3 MXoN riders back, a couple of big names coming in for the event, then I think rider numbers will bounce up quite a lot for the final three rounds.