A lot of people make a good living off the industry that is James Stewart. The 25-year-old has more responsibilty than anyone his age should have to bear. (Larry Lawrence photo)
James Stewart is getting from all sides. Chad Reed makes a blatant take-out move on him in the Atlanta Supercross and Stewart has almost certain victory taken away and finds himself losing valuable championship points to the ever consistent Ryan Villopoto. Then James, instead of blowing his stack and getting up into Reed’s grill, Bubba simply walks away. Sure he didn’t want to hear Reed’s explanation, but if Reed would have done to nearly anyone else what he did to Stewart I would bet the Aussie’s lights would have been punched out. So what reward does Stewart receive after getting cleaned out and then resisting the temptation to beat the living daylights out of Reed? He gets an earful from his dad purportedly for leaving the inside open in the turn (Admin – I found out later his dad didn’t yell at him for not protecting the inside line. He simply saw how ticked James was after the crash and told him to get back to the truck to cool off before he said or did something he’d regret.)
Let’s not quibble here. Reed’s move was total desperation; if not an out and out take-out move. Reed knows it, Stewart knows it, 69,000 fans knew it yet for some reason racing officials, when asked about it, said it just looked like a racing move.
OK then, let’s see what the AMA has to say next week when Stewart makes a “racing move” on Reed.
To say James Stewart is not universally loved in the motocross/Supercross community would be an understatement. His first and perhaps biggest sin in the eyes of hardcore fans and racing insiders was walking away from the outdoor nationals to pursue a Supercross-only career. Bubba must not love the sport to the core if he’s not running the nationals, right?
I’ll admit I wish James raced the outdoor nationals too, but I understand the grind doing five months of Supercross without a break and then going straight into the grueling Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship at the peak of summer. Including testing it’s a year-round job without break. You have to ride with nagging injuries, endure the endless drudgery of travel, public appearances and are asked to do it with a smile on your face.
James is just 25 years old and he’s been living this relentless lifestyle for a decade. Not only that, but this 25-year-old is a small industry who supports a lot of people directly and indirectly. That’s a lot of pressure for a young man. James is being pulled from every side nearly every minute of his life. And it’s always been like that.
Who could blame him if he decided he wanted to go lounge in a hammock on a Caribbean beach for a year or two with some pretty young thing feeding him grapes and cheese?
So he decides to find just a little breathing room in his life by racing Supercross only – so what? Jeremy McGrath did it and didn’t get this kind of grief from the fans.
Then there was “Bubba’s World”. The TV program showed James blowing off some steam and doing some crazy stuff. I say good for him. He never got the chance to be a kid. Who among us didn’t do crazy shit when we were in our early 20s? And there’s the lifestyle of fast cars, expensive toys and so on. Yes James would be smarter to live a little less extravagantly and put away his money for the future, but if he’s not set for life by now (which he probably is), I blame his management/advising team, not James.
So let’s be clear – there’s a bias against James out there. Had it been Ricky Carmichael or Ryan Dungey who’d been cleaned out by Chad Reed, I guarantee you Reed would have been slapped with some sort of penalty, but he did it to James and suddenly it was just a “racing move”
All that and James feels like he is finally doing things the right way – taking advice from his new team. He’s taking his training seriously, he’s not over-riding the bike anymore, he’s slowing down to be more consistent, he’s being patient and waiting for the right time to make his move, riding clean, yet he still finds himself 10 points down because guys like Reed take him out. “Where’s the payoff?” he must be thinking.
The more I watch James Stewart the more I admire him. I think he’s shown a lot of class by not losing it when lesser riders try to put him into the 10th row. I think he realizes that he has more to lose. He can’t just go off and do what Bob Hannah would have done for many reasons. James knows that people’s livelihood depends on him, so he just has to walk away and take it. He’ll decline to talk to the media in the heat of the moment because he knows he might say something he’ll regret later.
So far James has been the good man in a storm.
So the steam builds inside James. Some people it seems will only be happy when and if he finally blows – and that’s a shame.
Rider Files 
Larry you have stated my exact sentiments, Thanx.
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You make some very good points in your op-ed. However, it is offered with as much bias in young James favor as you would find in an op-ed written by Chad Reeds Mother. That being said, my belief is that it was not as cleanly one sided as you would like your article to portray. Could this unfortunate event been averted all together, by either party. My thoughts are absolutely so. Could a different line been taken by both riders, absolutely so. My point is after watching this split second block pass (attempt) enough times in freeze frame to objectively satisfy my concern this was and will be a controversial call for long after this season finale. James, is a take no prisoners rider, that is why he has so many trophy’s on the mantle, just so happens he was racing someone with the same motivation. James did not have to take Reed as high into the berm as he did on the previous pass, you know that and 69,000 attendee fans know that. Reed,I believe, needed to make not only a pass, but more importantly a statement that he was not going to be lunch-meat for James’ sandwiches the rest of the season. And I believe they will both learn a great deal from this one-sided approach to winning on (two) wheels and not on the ground. Am I a Reed fan, yes! Am I a Stewart fan, yes! Just a little more objective (editorially) than yourself.
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Very well stated Larry. I met James a long time ago when he was just a little boy. He was at a Fox sales meeting I was attending, and of course he was the next big thing for Fox. He was very polite and quiet. I’m 6’ 3” and he just seemed so small, but look how far he has come. All the haters out there are not true fans in my opinion. I’ll bet most have never been to Loretta Lynn’s and witnessed the dedication and family commitment it takes to be in James position. James has handled all of this very well, and I agree with you that as much as I would love to see him at Red Bud, I understand.
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Casey
I have no dog I this fight as they say. I know neither James Stewart nor Chad Reed personally, even though I’ve covered their careers since becoming pros.
If you think that move by Reed was even remotely defensible you see racing totally differently that I do. Reed wouldn’t have even been able to make the turn had he not forced the collision. I was there. I took the photos. Reed was about two feet from the tuff block on the outside of the track and still pointing 90 degrees to the direction he should have been pointed. I asked Reed about Stewart’s earlier pass, if he thought it was aggressive at all, and he told me no. Would you like to hear the audio?
69,000 fans weren’t wrong. There was a reason Reed was booed on the podium. It was a dirty move by the Aussie – plain and simple.
Look I like a good battle just as much as the next guy. However, riders can’t be permitted to simply take out their opponents. People get hurt like that. It is a safety issue and shame on the AMA for not slapping Reed with at least a fine and a warning. He probably deserved a suspension for that move.
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Admin;
As I referenced previously, this will continue to be a controversial call for a great long time. You may have taken some photos and (I) have watched the opposing angles offered by SPEED as well the ones on other offerings, in real time, slow-mo, reverse, frame by frame, and I can say the attitude of both riders leading up to the unfortunate event perpetrated by both riders was the procuring cause. James and Chad both could have avoided this bit of drama we are debating over right to the very moment of impact.
Both James and Chad for twenty laps were a train wreck waiting to happen. My point is you perceived this race, and reported this race with a subjective bias that I would not have chosen to take after careful review and consideration. Your words of “let’s not quibble here” some up your biased intent. You made some good points about James, I just don’t believe he was the innocent victim of circumstance your editorial attempts to be (in-fact) reality. As far as the way I perceive racing and more specifically this race, I hold both parties at fault, equally. I like both participants, equally. You now prescribe to have “no dog in this hunt.” Well, my friend, then you and I have a whole other opinion of objectivity when it comes to journalism. My thoughts from reading your article are, “you do in-fact have a dog in this hunt”
That is exactly my point.
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I found out his dad didn’t yell at him for not protecting the inside line. He simply saw how ticked he was after the crash and told him to get back to the truck to cool off before he said or did something he’d regret.
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