Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 6 FEBRUARY 11, 2014 P61 Stewart after his San Diego win. "When we first went out in practice, it was tacky, and then the second practice it was kind of shiny [slick], so we changed tires. Then in the third practice, the track changed and had a lot more moisture. The heat race, the track was kind of loose, and then in the main, it was different again, so we were just kind of guesstimating what the track was going to be like each time. So in the main, we took a big gamble and changed both tires, and normally we don't do that, but it seemed to work." Stewart's bike didn't quite hook up perfectly on the start, but it did for the rest of the race on. "On the start, I don't know if I moved too far forward, but I spun coming off the gate and those guys got me, but a couple of turns later I squirted around the inside and came out with the lead," said Stewart. "At that time, I knew Villopoto was going to be the guy, but I was kind of keeping an eye on Reed. I made a couple of mistakes the first two laps and they kind of closed back up on me. But then me and Ryan start- ed gapping those guys. Then Ryan made a mistake and I was able to get away a bit." A few laps later, Stewart had a bobble on the step-up jump, which was a troublesome part of the track. "There was a stair-step jump after the second corner and that was one of the scariest parts of the track," said Stewart. "I al- most looped out over it once, and then I almost landed on Kyle Chisholm on another lap. It was tough because you had to com- mit right out of the corner, and if you didn't commit then you didn't have enough speed and you would spin going off the top of it." Even before the weekend, the team came in not really knowing where they stood on setup. "With Rob Hendrickson com- ing into the team from WP, we changed a lot of things a couple of weeks before Anaheim. I've been out here [California] every week during the off-season test- ing, trying to find the right setup," said Stewart. "At one point we thought we had it right, but then last week at Anaheim III, we com- pletely screwed the motorcycle up. We struggled with the bike, but we just worked through it and we had everything ready for tonight. Last week, we knew why we had a bad race, and this weekend we came in here and nailed it." Not only did the Yoshimura Suzuki team have Stewart's bike setup right for the main event but Stewart felt like he's just been rid- ing at his best lately. "I've been around for a while and I think this is probably the best I've ever been as far as race smarts, management and con- ditioning," said Stewart. "Even when I was training with Aldon [Baker], I feel like I'm stronger than I was then. Even though I won last year in Atlanta, I didn't feel like I dominated. But tonight I came out here and I felt like this is where I belong." Even in the off-season, Stew- art's team did everything they could to get an edge coming into the season. "One of the things we did this year - we knew our [test] track needed some work and we need- ed to make it better and so Mike Webb [Yoshimura Suzuki Team manager] put a lot of money in it to make it better," said Stewart. "He brought in dirt and he did what was necessary. You know, we have Broc [Tickle] and Josh [Hill] but I feel like I'm the only guy that tests out here. I feel like I'm actually a good test rider now. Unfortunately it doesn't always pan out. But this year, the bike has been better than ever, and I think I've been riding better than ever." Right now, Stewart is 21 points out of the lead in the series standings, but we've only had six rounds and there are still 11 to go, so there's still plenty of time to make that up, and Stewart knows that. "Our focus is the main event and to ride 20 solid laps, and I feel like if we ride 20 laps like we did tonight then we're going to be there at the finish," said Stewart. "Again, Ryan's going to be strong at some races, and we're going to be strong, so the goal is just to be solid every weekend and I think we have, it's just the results don't show it. We have a lot of racing to go in this championship and I'm not out of this thing yet." CN

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