Soutwick, MA - June 13, 2004
By Steve Cox

James Stewart is aboard one of the only two-strokes left in the 125cc class at the AMA/Chevrolet 125cc National Motocross Championships, with perhaps the Red Bull KTMs of Ryan Hughes and Brett Metcalfe being the only other two among the frontrunners, and KTM doesn’t have a production 250cc four-stroke yet. However, on said two-stroke, Stewart has been unbeatable so far this year, winning all six motos run so far, and the last four motos by close to two and a half minutes combined.

“ I had fun out there, and today I actually felt like I had to work,” Stewart said. “I had some horrible starts, and I think I’ll have to work on my concrete starts before Budds Creek. Besides that, I felt good. My lower back got a little tired too, but I felt like I was in good shape.”

He started a bit behind in moto one, but he made it to the lead by the end of lap three. From there, he extended his lead over the ensuing 15 laps to win by about 40 seconds over Nathan Ramsey and Mike Brown.

Stewart was even further back off of the start of the second moto than he was in the first. It took him until lap five to move from outside the top 10 to the lead of the race, eventually running away to win by 31 seconds, this time over Brown, with Ramsey third and third overall.

“ I came out second, but Stewart is hard to beat,” Brown said. “I got bad starts like he was, but he just got through traffic so much better and he’s going fast, so I don’t know what else to say about beating him. Each week, we keep working on my bike and getting it better, and that’s a good thing that my bike gets better every week, and I hope I can get some starts and get up front... I just hope to get a better start and get up there before Stewart. Second overall’s good, and I moved into second in the points. We’ll see more next week.”

Brown thinks the four-stroke is a big help to him overall, although maybe not at the ‘wick.

“ It’s helped me for sure,” Brown said. “The bike’s good. On this track, I think maybe I could’ve ridden a 125 better, but I don’t know I think the bike’s good and the power’s getting better every week. At first, I was kind of struggling with it, but the team’s working hard to make it better. Overall, I think I’d rather be on the four-stroke.”

With Carmichael’s equally perfect season still intact, it’s conceivable that we may have two concurrent perfect seasons on our hands.

“ I think that’d be pretty cool to do two perfect seasons,” Bubba said. “I think that’d be good. You’ve definitely got the Fox and Oakley, and we’re winning everything right now. I know Ricky will do his job and I’m definitely going to try to do mine, so if it happens, there’s going to be some good racing next year.”


AMA/Chevrolet Southwick 125cc National Overall Results:
1. James Stewart, 1-1
2. Mike Brown, 3-2
3. Nathan Ramsey, 2-3
4. Ivan Tedesco, 5-4
5. Ryan Hughes, 6-5
6. Danny Smith, 7-6
7. Kelly Smith, 10-8
8. Josh Grant, 9-9
9. Greg Schnell, 12-7
10. Brett Metcalfe, 8-13