The Return of James Stewart

Pros Oct 15, 2015

The return of James Stewart is here.

After a year of watching from the sidelines, suspended from racing FIM-sanctioned events, Stewart has re-emerged. And the questions have come swiftly: Will he dominate? Is he a championship contender still? Will he win races?

Frankly, it doesn't matter. If James races, everyone wins. The most exciting racer to ever line up to a supercross gate has been absent from the sport for a year, and it's the sport itself that has suffered the most.

While a helmet and goggles mask a racer, Stewart's prowess on the track has helped his personality shine through lens and lid. He is a household name in the motocross world and, while both praise and scrutiny have surrounded him, all eyes are fixated to the #7 on his back every time he rides onto the track. Behind his Oakley goggles, Stewart performs unbelievable feats on his race bike. His fearlessness and athleticism synthesize and propel him around a track with a speed and dynamic unmatched by anyone to ever throw a leg over a bike before him. Sans helmet and goggles, Stewart's smile and demeanor have won over a typically fickle audience. He permeates an energy at every race he enters, and it's felt from the pits to the track and all the way up into the nose-bleeds of a stadium. Indeed, the field of professional motocross racers is deep, full of ultra-fast fan favorites that combine to create the overall identity of the sport. The level of talent and speed of the sport's elite has never been higher. However, you will be hard-pressed to find a fan that did not feel a tinge of incompleteness during last year's race season. Stewart bears an intangible quality in addition to his freakish ability that makes his presence and his absence impossible to overlook.

So whether he can win or not really has no bearing on the excitement that is already brewing in anticipation of his return to the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series. That said, he has already answered the question, no matter how irrelevant it is. He formally returned to racing this past weekend at the 2015 Red Bull Straight Rhythm, a one-off race of which he serves as defending champ, and reminded everyone why he is so important to motocross. The level of competition today is higher than ever, and most everyone that lines up next to Stewart is younger. None, however, can match his fearless entry into whoops, or his indomitable twist of the throttle.

He defended his title soundly, which will assuredly initiate at least a bit of momentum heading into his first Supercross race in over a year, the 2015 Monster Energy Cup. The gates will drop this weekend in Las Vegas, and while it remains to be seen how Stewart will fare against a full gate of Supercross racers after such a long hiatus this late in his career, the sport will be whole again.

So on behalf of moto: welcome back, James. We missed you.

LINK:	http://gopro.com/news/the-return-of-james-stewart...
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