Anstey's path to motorcycle racing was shaped by watching Mike Hailwood's comeback victory at the 1978 Isle of Man TT. He made his competitive debut on Boxing Day 1990 at the Cemetery Circuit in Whanganui, New Zealand, riding a Suzuki RGV250. He made his TT debut in 1996 and, after missing the 1997 event due to illness, steadily built his results across the late 1990s and 2000s to become one of the most consistent and formidable performers in international road racing.
Anstey's TT career is defined by consistency and technical excellence across multiple manufacturers. Riding for DTR Yamaha in his early seasons, he took his maiden TT victory in the 2002 Lightweight TT on a 250cc Yamaha. In 2003, aboard a Valmoto Triumph Daytona, he won the Junior TT — giving Triumph its first TT win in 27 years.
He joined TAS Suzuki in 2004, immediately finishing on the podium in all entered races, including winning the 1000cc Production race. Further wins followed in the Superstock class in 2005 and 2007, the latter by a dominant 40-second margin over John McGuinness. During 2006 TT practice, he recorded an unofficial top speed of 206 mph on the Sulby Straight — captured by on-board data logging, though not recognised as an official record.
Switching to Padgett's Honda for 2011, Anstey won the opening Supersport race and continued to collect podiums in subsequent years. In 2014, he set a new outright lap record in the Superbike TT, earning the John Williams Trophy (fastest lap in the Superbike race) and the Jimmy Simpson Trophy (fastest lap of the entire meeting).
The pinnacle of his TT career came in 2015 when he won the Superbike TT, taking the lead after the lap-four pit stops and winning by 10.97 seconds from a field that included Ian Hutchinson. He set a new race record and a fastest lap of 131.977 mph during that victory, and won the John Williams Trophy for the second consecutive year.
In 2016, Anstey competed in the Superbike TT aboard a Honda RC213V-S — a heavily modified MotoGP-derived machine requiring bespoke components to endure six laps of the Mountain Course. Despite suffering injuries in a pre-race qualifying crash at Keppel Gate, he was passed fit and raced, finishing eighth. He won the TT Zero class that year in the electric bike event, taking the lead from Mugen teammate John McGuinness after McGuinness was forced to make adjustments.
In 2017, Anstey added a 12th TT win in the TT Zero category. At the Classic TT in 2017, he became the first 250cc rider to lap the Mountain Course at over 120 mph, recording 120.181 mph.
For thirteen consecutive seasons from 2002 to 2015, Anstey secured a top-three finish at the North West 200, the Isle of Man TT, and the Ulster Grand Prix — a record of sustained podium-level performance across all three major road race events unmatched in that era.
Anstey recorded ten North West 200 victories by 2017, placing him sixth on the all-time winners list at the time. His wins spanned Superbike, Supersport, Superstock, and Production categories across multiple manufacturers. He won a hat-trick of races at the 2007 meeting. His last North West 200 victory came in 2015.
In 2016, during the opening Superbike race, Anstey recorded an absolute top speed of 209.8 mph on the run to Coleraine — the highest speed recorded at the North West 200 at that point.
Anstey accumulated 13 victories at the Ulster Grand Prix across his career. His 2010 victory for TAS Suzuki saw him break the lap record with an average speed of 133.977 mph at Dundrod — at the time making him the fastest rider on what is billed as the world's fastest road racing circuit. He won a further four races at the event for Padgett's Honda between 2011 and 2015, including the 2015 Ulster Grand Prix itself in controversial circumstances when he was awarded victory after a red flag despite not leading when the race was stopped.
Anstey was first diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1995, which caused him to miss the 1997 TT season. Although declared free of the disease, he has described lasting effects on his immune system. In April 2018, it was revealed that cancerous tumours had been found in his lungs and spine, alongside a blood clot on one lung, ruling him out of the 2018 season entirely. He underwent an operation in 2019, which he believes was successful, and returned to competitive racing at the 2019 Classic TT, winning the 250cc event by a 70-second margin over teammate Davey Todd.
Bruce Anstey is among the most decorated road racers of the modern era. His record across the TT, North West 200, and Ulster Grand Prix over more than two decades places him in the highest tier of the discipline. His cancer battles — twice interrupting a career defined by precision, consistency, and speed — add a dimension to his story that goes beyond statistical achievement. He was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to motorsport in the 2015 New Year Honours and inducted into the Motorcycle NZ Hall of Fame in 2021.