Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 13, 2015 P71 Briefly... the fracture fixed. "I did have a back surgery, but that was just to burn the tissue around the fracture," Roczen said. "If we would have fixed the fracture I would have been out for six months and obviously I can't af- ford that right now." Still, Roczen got some riding in at home in Germany on a pretty mellow Supercross track he had built on his property, and he looked like his old self at the Straight Rhythm. "I haven't had a whole lot of time to really ride," Roczen said. "I was [riding] in Germany, but I can't really compare with this—jump after jump after jump. I came back last Sunday and got a couple of days on the test track this week. It was a fun event today. It was unfortunate that in the last run I accidentally crossed the line, and obviously you're dis- qualified right away. But anyways, we just raced for fun. We're going to go and do some testing next week, get ready for Monster Cup, because we haven't done that yet." When James Stewart launched his own brand of riding gear, Seven, a few years ago, he did so with the help of the legendary Troy Lee of Troy Lee Designs fame. According to Stewart, one of the benefits of being forced to take time off in 2015 was that he was able to put the effort in to take Seven over completely so that he can guide the company how he wants to. "I became 100-percent owner of Seven, which if I was rac- ing [in 2015], that wouldn't have hap- pened," Stewart said. "We've been building a great team with that. And a lot of other things that I've been having a chance to work on—riding schools, just a lot of different things. So there have been some very good I don't think I got a completely clean run in today." Stewart seemed to be pre- paring himself for defeat after qualifying. "I came here wanting to win, but if I don't, it is what it is," Stewart said. "It would be differ- ent if it was in January and I lost. I'd be pissed, because I expect to win. I trained the last three months to win. Where here, I've really been setting up the mo- torcycle for a Supercross track, so to get here and throw all that stuff out and ride on a stiffer track [setting], even though I won it last year and I'm good at this kind of stuff, you have to race. And I think with this race it kind of shows the repetitions of racing that I've missed. When I finished today I was actually kind of, first time in a long time I had that feeling like, I hate this. I hate the feeling of being slow. I don't know how much I'll change it overnight, it's good that I still care enough to have that. And ond run, seven tenths of a sec- ond behind RCH Suzuki's Ken Roczen (first with a 42.336) and Red Bull KTM's Ryan Dungey (42.835). After qualifying, Stew- art rationalized that he might not be ready to compete at a full sprint with guys at Roczen's and Dungey's level. "For some reason, I hadn't even thought about it, but I haven't practiced a sprint since maybe Supercross last year (2014)," Stewart said. "For me, it's that ability to drop the gate and go. That part you lose a little bit. But there are still some things. I made some mistakes and there are things I've got to fix on the bike and myself personally, but we're still eight tenths off." As for Roczen, he still figured he had a little in the tank for Saturday's event. "The main thing was just get- ting over all the jumps clean," Roczen said. "I did that, and I was sprinting pretty hard, but Red Bull Straight Rhythm summary. continued on page 75

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