Cycle News

T here are certain universal truths in life. They're "univer- sally true" because they don't change. Among them: Common sense isn't common, and is often factually incorrect; happiness and satisfaction come from within; the truth is the truth, regardless of who believes it; truth is nearly always af- fected by how you perceive it; and because of that there are actually no universal truths. Confused? Me, too. Constantly. But here's another universal truth: James Stewart is the fastest moto- cross racer on the planet. How can that be? Ryan Villopoto has won three consecutive AMA Su- percross Championships and five 450cc championships since 2011. James Stewart hasn't won a cham- pionship since 2009. To understand, we'll start at the beginning. Throughout his entire racing ca- reer, starting when he was just a child, there have always been peo- ple whom Stewart could never satis- fy. It doesn't matter how fast he was, or how humble he was, or how nice he was, the unavoidable and univer- sal truth is that James Stewart is a black man in a white man's sport, and there are people who would pre- fer if he never lost track of that fact. (I'm entirely uncomfortable using what has become known as "the N- word," but I'm even less comfortable using that abbreviation when quoting someone using the word, because I think it softens the impact, so keep that in mind as you read on.) James' dad James Stewart Sr. has told stories about his son's early racing days when he would pull up to the entry gate at a motocross track only to have the person running the gate say, "We don't race niggers here." As James Sr. tells the story, he would reply with, "That's good, because we're here to race dirt bikes!" I can't even imagine the self- control it must take to avoid beat- ing the crap out of a guy like that if you're James Stewart Sr. But an- other universal truth is that if James Sr. would've reacted that way, he would've lent credence to the idea that African-Americans are thugs who have no place in a sport like mo- tocross, because the story would've been that this black man showed up to the track and beat up the gate worker, not that the gate worker said some racist crap to him and got what he deserved. When James Stewart Jr. hit the pros in 2002, having turned 16 lit- erally weeks before his Anaheim Supercross debut, he was a happy guy. You couldn't wipe the smile off of his face if you tried. And he was the fastest man in the 125cc class, hands-down. In 2004, Stewart began cel- ebrating after some of his 125cc (now 250cc) Supercross wins in the 125cc Eastern Regional Series, where he was flat-out murdering the field, including his now-infamous "sprinkler" dance. I was actually vo- cal about the fact that I didn't like the post-race celebrations, but it was because he was killing those guys so bad that it almost seemed like salt in the wound for everyone else. I said at the time, and still believe, that the celebrations would've been just fine if they were in the 250cc (now 450cc) class, because he would've been celebrating beating the best in the world, not a lesser class of entry- level pros. But many people didn't like the celebrations for an entirely different reason. The 2005 Orlando Supercross was the first time I witnessed overt racism against Stewart from the fans. I was walking from one pit to another while Stewart was signing auto- graphs under the Kawasaki awning when I heard a fan yell, "Go home, nigger!" from behind a sea of fans. This "fan" repeated it, quite loudly, at least three or four times before he finally gave up and walked away, and I remember watching James Stewart as this went on. Stewart just continued paying attention to each fan in line as they approached, and smiled and took pictures with them, signing whatever they wanted him to sign. It occurred to me later that the Orlando Supercross is the closest race to Stewart's house in Haines City, Florida, which made me realize that this is the environment in which James grew up. Over the ensuing few years, es- pecially as he attempted to dethrone the "GOAT" Ricky Carmichael, Stew- art faced more and more of this, and he withdrew within himself. How could he not? He's only human. Although Carmichael had achieved "perfect seasons" dur- ing two previous outdoor champi- onships (in 2002 and 2004, both before Stewart moved up to Carmi- chael's class) and was celebrated for it, when Stewart did it in 2008, a lot of people said he only did it because there "was no competition" – as if Stewart had nothing to do with the fact that no one could compete with him. As he continued to withdraw, he BY STEVE COX CN III GUEST COLUMN "THE FASTEST MAN ON THE PLANET" P116

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