You know, the bad thing about being passionate about sports mostly rednecks follow is this: Most of the people that follow it are rednecks.
I realize that sounds like I’m just repeating myself. Seriously, though, most Supercross “fans” are complete idiots. They haven’t followed the sport long enough to even know who Jeremy McGrath is, let alone people like Rick Johnson, Jeff Ward, David Bailey, or Bob Hannah. They attend races, but they are so drunk by the time the main event starts that they don’t even know who is winning, much less notice when someone is suddenly taking a different line through that rhythm section.
Even worse, some of these people apparently become the heads of the sanctioning body, and they end up running the show, even though they obviously don’t have a freaking clue what is going on.
Let’s consider James Stewart here, self-entitled crybaby extraordinaire.
First off, let me be the first to say it: Stewart is way fast. The fastest guy on the track, without question.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, and we’ve already addressed the whiny crybaby aspect, let’s talk about another aspect of his legacy: Crashing. In particular, crashing into other people.
I can’t think of anyone in recent memory that has done this more often. Off the top of my head, here’s the ones I can remember:
- James lands on top of Ivan Tedesco in Supercross practice, breaking his hand and ruining his season.
- James crashes at the bottom of the finish-line double, then remounts his bike and pulls directly onto the track at the foot of the jump directly into oncoming traffic without looking first, taking Travis Preston out of the race.
- Interesting sidenote: James finishes the race, but then collapses in “pain” at the end to avoid getting his tail whipped by Preston, who was waiting around to have a word.
- James jumps and lands on top of Ricky Carmichael.
- James crashes off the track in a whoops section, then pulls back onto the track (again without looking) right into Kevin Windham, crashing them both.
That doesn’t include all the times Stewart and Reed crashed into each other, nor all the times Stewart intentionally tried to take Reed out (for example, the time Stewart crossed lines in mid-air over a triple jump, trying to take Reed out about 20 feet above the ground). And I’d also include the times where James and his team got his teammate to try to intentionally take Reed out in Salt Lake City last year.
So Phoenix was more of the same. It started out in the heat, where James got a mediocre start, then crosses from the middle of the track to the edge (sound familiar?) in the first triple jump, and ends up right underneath Kyle Partridge. Partridge was unhurt but did not finish the race or qualify for the main event. Stewart stood up, made sure the camera was looking right at him, then limped around grimacing to make sure everyone knew he was really hurt. Then came out and raced the LCQ like nothing happened.
Then the main event comes along. Reed is riding behind Stewart, is riding faster than him, and is obviously carefully looking for the right place to pass. Finally he gets a small window of opportunity and makes a block pass in the turn, taking away Stewart’s line.
This is a completely legal and legitimate move. It happens in Supercross racing ALL THE TIME, in every race, in every event. It is not considered a dirty move if you clearly take the line from the other rider. Reed did not initiate contact with Stewart; he took the position.
Stewart, meanwhile, cut down early into Reed and crashed into him.
This part, while unfortunate, I can understand. Things happen quickly in a race. But, if you have this recorded in high-def, like my brother does, you should replay it. As I’m told, if you watch the replay you can clearly see that Reed is going to get out of the turn until Stewart reaches out and grabs Reed, pulling him to the ground along with Stewart.
Well, Reed breaks his hand in the crash. He’s lying there on the ground with Stewart and Stewart’s bike sitting there on his broken hand. Reed pushes Stewart off of the top of him, mounts his bike, and rides directly into the pits (we found out much later; more on this in a minute).
Stewart, meanwhile, gets up and finishes the race in 15th. Then, after the race, he storms over to Chad Reed’s pit and pushes Reed’s bike over. I assume he wanted to have “a word” with Reed, and that Reed wasn’t there because he was at the hospital.
Meanwhile, throughout most of the racing evening all we’ve heard on TV is Ralph Sheheen going on and on and on and on and on and on and on about Stewart. Some samples:
- “James Stewart is so fast. So fast! I mean, he’s so fast!”
- “James Stewart is incredible. I mean, he is just incredible. Incredible!”
- “James Stewart looks so hot in those tight pants. Hot! I mean, really, really hot!”
(Okay, maybe he didn’t actually say that last one.)
Post-race, here is the immediate fallout: Chad Reed is suspended by the AMA and fined $5000. James Stewart is given a warning.
Wait. This can’t be right! Let me restate:
- James Stewart:
- Crossed the track in mid-air over a triple jump in mid-pack at the start of a race, directly into the path of another rider. IN MID-AIR. Causing a very dangerous collision. Taking another rider out for the remainder of the evening.
- Later, he cuts down into another rider that has already taken a spot away from him, grabs on to that rider and pulls him to the ground. In doing so, he breaks that other rider’s hand. This other rider just happens to be Stewart’s primary contender for the title, who is now out for half of the season. So Stewart not only took yet another rider out of the race, he took this one out of title contention.
- Later, he storms across the pits to have a word with this guy who had the nerve to pass James cleanly. He enters Reed’s pit area and pushes over his factory Kawasaki Supercross bike.
- For all of this, the AMA says, “Aw, James. We know you feel sad. You shouldn’t treat other people like that, okay? There there.”
- And Ralph Sheheen says, “Poor James. He sure looks hot when he’s angry!”
- Chad Reed:
- Passed Stewart cleanly, but was then crashed into by Stewart and apparently tackled to the ground.
- He breaks his hand in the process, ruining his season.
- He pushes Stewart off of his broken hand so he can get up and go to the hospital.
- For this, Reed is fined and suspended.
- And Ralph Sheheen says, “Serves old what’s-his-name right for hurting my sweetie-pie like that!”
This is so ludicrous it is beyond belief. What race were these guys watching?
Stewart was only given a warning because this was his “first offense,” according to the AMA officials. Hello?!? Have you guys ever seen another race? Stewart does this kind of crap ALL THE TIME!
Stewart does this all the time because of his self-entitlement problem. He thinks that everyone on the track should just get out of his way while he rides to victory. He considers the entire track to be his personal track. He can take any line he wants, whenever he wants it. He belongs at the front and will run over or through anyone who gets in his way.
It makes me wonder how many other guys there would be that could compete with him if they all had absolutely no respect for anyone else they race with and no regard for the safety of the others on the track. Since Stewart is pretty much the only one, we’ll never know, unless the AMA does something.
They won’t though, and it has to do with the bench-racing forum-posting crowd.
Reading some of the forum posts after the race is something I can’t recommend. I think it is dangerous to do; I think it will actually make you stupider. These guys go on and on about how Reed “took James out” of the race. Nevermind the fact that Reed cleanly had the position. Nevermind the fact that last year, when Stewart took the position from Reed at Anaheim 1, then cut across the front of Reed and missed a shift, causing them both to crash, that it was these same people claiming that Reed took Stewart out again, in a crash that seems to be almost an exact role-reversal from last year! I’m willing to chalk them both up to pure racing incidents, but if anything Stewart was to blame in both cases, not Reed.
Anyway, the problem is, it is these people that eventually become the main dudes at the AMA. I guess I should cut them some slack about Phoenix. Heck, the AMA officials were probably slobbering drunk at the race also. That would at least explain what otherwise looks like obvious favortism that can only be rivaled by the BCS.
AMA? Sheheen? It is time for this Stewart favortism to stop. You need to see it for what it is: He’s a selfish, whiny, crybaby brat with a self-entitlement and lack-of-humility problem. He’s dangerous to every other rider on the track because he has no respect for them. And he’s dangerous to the sport because he makes it look like the only way to compete is to compete dirty, and there’s a lot of riders (not Andrew Short or Eric Sorby, but most of the others) who aren’t willing to be thought of as dirty in order to win if they can help it.
Besides, Ralph, he’s just not that into you.
matt Sports Motocross, Supercross
