The Missing Man Formation

Your heart just has to go out for James Stewart. Retro night, 80’s night, whatever you want to call it marked a celebration for supercross, a first-time ever realization that the sport, on a grand scale, has produced enough memories, heroes, drama and stories to build an event around the past. And as much as we super-core fans understand the history of supercross, you have to think really hard to remember just how small the sport was way back when, just how insignificant it was to mainstream America, just how much more popular it is now. Oh yeah, the old-schoolers can point to the “golden era” and wax on about multiple winners and deep competition in the 1980’s, or millions of bike sales every year in the 1970s. But supercross in the current era can point out 50,000 fans per race, next day coverage on network television and consistent reminders in the mainstream press—like USA Today, or ESPN the Magazine—that supercross is very close to reaching the nation’s collective conscience.

So it’s a real shame that on a night when everyone who was anyone along the road to success for supercross, namely 37 past legends and champions in this sport, gathered for one supercross race, one of the best, perhaps the fastest, most talented, most popular and mainstream of them all, couldn’t be out there. Oh yeah, RJ and Bailey were there, so were Wardy and Glover and O’Mara and Stanton and Lechien, and even the OGs, like Brad Lackey, Marty Smith and Marty Tripes. RC and MC were there and even did some riding. Missing? Well, the exceptions to every SX rule, Jean-Michel Bayle and Damon Bradshaw. That’s about it. As far as riding talent goes, Anaheim 2, retro night, was a who’s who for this sport.

Except for that one missing person, the one who bridges the gap between supercross’ past and present, and supercross’ future. The one who broke down barriers (you know what I mean), introduced the next generation of skills and may possibly boost this sport to bigger heights than all that came before him. Hey folks, the rider is James Stewart. He was supposed to be racing and winning here. He was supposed to tame this ’86 replica track and carry the torch for the new school. He was supposed to show respect to the stars of the past, and get respect from them in return—you could almost hear all of those legends ready to praise James for his amazing skills on the bike, and hold him up as the example of how far supercross has come.

But now James has a bad knee. The injury didn’t happen due to the retro track, it happened on December 20^th when James crashed on his practice track. He tried to tough it out, but after a month of basically not riding and training, the knee only got worse and not better. One great improvement, though: James and the Monster Kawasaki team held a press conference in the factory semi, and James looked every media member right in the eye and told the truth about his injury. It’s a whole lot better than the mystery injury that followed Washougal.

But the knee isn’t going to get better, and James ended the PC with “The next time you’ll see me is probably Glen Helen in May.” And that was it for him on the evening. Yes, Chas Reed was there, as was RJ and Bailey, Wardy and Glover and O’Mara and Stanton and Lechien, and even Brad Lackey, Marty Smith and Marty Tripes. RC and MC, too. But during those opening ceremonies, James Stewart wasn’t there. He was handing over another championship on this night. Is he injured? Yes. Is he hurt? More than you could possibly imagine.