Carrying the red plates into round three of the 2025 Boost Mobile AUSX Supercross Championship in Cronulla, Dean Wilson and Lux Turner continued their winning ways under lights on Saturday night, but it didn’t come without its drama. MotoOnline caught up with both riders after the races for this Debrief interview.

SX1

Image: Foremost Media.

Deano, another win for you in Cronulla. Congratulations, that’s three in a row now, but this one didn’t come without its share of drama. Take us through the night from your perspective.

Yeah, I think the night was pretty good – I was happy with it. Started off in the heat race and, yeah, just kind of connected with [Dylan Walsh], locked bars a bit and couldn’t get separated, so I ended up going down. But honestly, I was pretty pleased with my riding in that one. I made a couple of small mistakes, but overall, I was happy with how I was riding. Heading into the main, I had sixth gate pick, so it wasn’t ideal, and I knew I needed to make it work off the start. I got a decent jump and settled into my rhythm, just clicked off my laps and felt solid and got the win there. In the second main, another pretty good start – I think I started second and moved into the lead on the first lap. I could feel Luke [Clout] behind me for a few laps, but I felt good, managed to build a bit of a gap, and was able to control it from there. I was happy with how I rode and crossed the line for the win, which felt good. Then I got to the podium afterwards and they told me that I’d skimmed the whoops under a red-cross flag. I said I’d seen one at the end of the whoops but not at the start – only when I was exiting the section, so I told them that it wasn’t out for me. Then I was thinking that maybe it was out and I didn’t see, so I mentioned that maybe we could review some footage to go over it properly, but they made a call straight away before checking everything. I understand that they had to do podium stuff, but they kind of just took [the win] off me right away. Once we went back and looked at the footage from different angles, you could see the flagger didn’t have the flag out yet when I went through – he was just getting ready to put it out when I went past, but it wasn’t out. There was a red-cross flag in the middle of the whoops, but anyone who rides, knows you can’t just chop the throttle in the middle of the whoops and start rolling – you’d literally just go over the bars. By the time Luke [Clout] came over the wall jump, the red cross flag was fully out, so he saw it. Anyway, once everything got reviewed, it was all sorted, and the win was reinstated. So yeah, all good in the end – another win, that’s six in a row now, and I’m pretty pleased with that.

Going back to the starts, you spoke about it quite a lot last year and it being an area that you needed to improve in. Has that been the case this year? Do you feel like you’ve made those improvements?

Yeah, I mean, it makes life a lot easier for sure. Round one, my starts were terrible, so after that I knew I needed to figure it out. It’s really just the simple things on the start that help me, so I’ve been focusing on those. The starts have been a big focus for me lately, especially over the weekend. I believe I’m fine if I’m somewhere around the top seven off the start – I can still get it done from there – but being in the lead, or even top two or three right away, just makes life so much easier. Starts have been a weakness for most of my career, so it’s definitely something I’ve been putting a lot of attention into and really trying to improve on right now.

There was a fair bit of confusion around the red-cross flag situation at the end. Can you talk us through what actually happened there? It must’ve been a strange one to deal with – especially knowing you still would’ve left with an extended points lead, but temporarily lost the win and a bit of bonus money in the process.

Yeah, they made the call without even really seeing what happened – they jumped the gun a little early, you could say – they got a little too trigger-happy. I told Yarrive [Konsky] to protest it straight away because I was certain I didn’t see a flag. The thing is, I rolled every single yellow flag or flashing light I saw when I didn’t even have to. I already had a six-second lead, I wasn’t trying to gain anything by skimming the whoops. I just never saw the flag. Once we got the footage, it was clear as day. The flagger just hadn’t put the flag out yet when I went through, and even the referee called the flagger and he even he admitted that I went past just as he was about to put it out. So I think they just need to take a bit more time to properly review things before making a concrete decision, because it doesn’t look professional when the wrong podium is already up there and the call’s still being worked out. I said to them, ‘Listen, if that red cross had been out at the beginning, there’s no way I would’ve skimmed the whoops.’ I’ve been racing professionally for almost 17 years, and I know the rules. Thankfully, once it was reviewed, we got the win – but if they’d just taken a moment to look at it properly in the first place, none of that drama needed to happen.

We’re moving into a bit of a break now before back-to-back rounds at Melbourne and Adelaide to finish the season. What does this four-week break look like now for you? Do you head home and train there, or stay in Australia and get the work done with the team here?

The plan is to stay in Australia. I’m going to take a week off the bike – I’ll still train, but no riding. But yeah, just keep carrying on from there with my training and riding, and that’s it – nothing too exciting really.

The AUSX Open is up next. Obviously, a big event with the Jett and Hunter Lawrence being there, among other big names. What’s the mentality heading into that, because that added depth can definitely shake things up a little bit? Do you go there and try to stack points, or are you going to try and stick it to the Lawrences?

I’m just going to take it one thing at a time – focusing on my starts first, and then seeing where that takes me. I mean, I’m not dumb – I know Hunter and Jett are probably going to be pretty hard to beat, [laughs]. Honestly, I just try to get as close to them as I can and see where that takes me. My main focus is on getting good starts and putting solid laps together. I think the biggest thing that helps me perform well is my mindset, right? I don’t get too far ahead of myself, I just try to stay level-headed and take it one race at a time. I don’t set huge expectations or anything like that because it just creates pressure, and pressure can make riders fold. I’m really looking forward to having the Lawrence boys come over – it’ll be good racing. I’m just going to do my best to stay with them and see how close I can get — that’s the goal.

Well, enjoy your week off the bike, and we’ll see you in Melbourne. Congratulations on another win!

Thanks, mate!

SX2

Image: Foremost Media.

The winner here in SX2, continuing the trend. Lux Turner, congratulations. Did what you needed to do in that second race there with your teammate. Take us through the night.

Yeah, man, thank you so much. I’m honestly blessed to be here right now, and winning again is just amazing. Obviously, the first race went well. Obviously, I would like to win, but I’m in a position now where I don’t need to win in a way. Second’s okay for the first race – it was just as good as first. Ryder [Kingsford] was riding amazing. Anytime I would try to gain time on him, I’d make a little mistake, so I just had to be smart and brought it home for second. And then the second moto was obviously a lot better. It honestly felt identical to the first moto. It’s just, I think I was pressuring Ryder a bit, and then the track got a lot more torn down, and the whoops were tricky. I started seeing him go side to side. So for some reason, I started going faster through the whoops.

It’s almost like the worse the track got is when you would technically be able to ride better.

Absolutely. I think that’s because in the US we go for so long, like eight minutes, or eight laps here is half our race distance at home, so you have to be so consistent, and as the track gets broken down more, I feel like that’s when I shine, just consistency-wise.

And for you as well, you knew second place – you could go 2-2 tonight, still make a heap of points, extend your lead. And that’s where you think about this thing, and the fact that you don’t need to send it. But obviously, you saw the moment. Great pass up the inside, did you see that last second?

Oh, yeah.

Because it looked like he stumbled, and you saw that moment, and it was pretty much over really quickly.

Yeah, obviously, once I saw him start stumbling, I knew it was my time to shine. Obviously, I don’t like riding around someone or riding behind someone. So, when I see the chance, I take it. But I’m in a position now where I don’t need to take that chance unless it’s there for me to take. So yeah, I’m pumped.

You know, we’ve spoken about America and obviously, a new team for you next year. Why I say that is, being here in Australia, these results, being at the front, do you learn to win here and gain motivation and gain other little things being at the front, to where you feel that you could go to Anaheim next year and take what you’ve learnt being over here?

So the biggest thing I could take away from being here is, I’m learning to win. I’m learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable up front. I’m not used to that, and now I’m beginning to get used to that. That’s the biggest thing I’m going to take away from this into the States. Like you said, now I could go holeshot at A1, and I’m used to being up front. So like in the past, I would get tight, but now I’m used to being up front.

You had your family here as well. Your sister, she’s very popular with the fans here in Australia. Are you like, ‘Come on, I’m winning – I have a red plate. I’m doing all these things.’ And Lala [Lachlan Turner] shows up, and she steals the crowd. Was it great to have your family here to see that tonight?

Yeah, it means the world to me. For them to fly out just to watch me race across the whole world, it’s beautiful. I love them to death, and I wouldn’t be here without them. And seeing Lala have all this fame, I would rather her have fame than me. She deserves it, so it means a lot.

Now, for you, a bit of a break before heading back to Melbourne. Are you going home? Or are you going to stay here for a little while – what are you up to?

Yeah, so I’ll fly out tomorrow morning at 11 am and I’ll go back to the States, probably take a week off, move into my new house and then get back to work with my new team in the States.

Hey, congratulations, we will see you in Melbourne. It’s probably going to be even closer to what you are used to. One thing you said to me just before, this dirt here, what’s it remind you of?

It literally is identical to A1, and it’s making me so confident in my bike to be able to show up to A1 knowing it already handles amazingly.

Absolutely, so everyone there listening, what’s A1 like? Well, you’ve seen it here at Shark Park in Cronulla. Congratulations, we’ll see you in a few weeks.

Thank you so much, sir.