Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/650535
IN THE WIND P30 KTM SAYS STEWART SHOULDN'T BE TO BLAME I n a somewhat unusual—but classy—move, the Red Bull KTM team issued a press release stating that Yoshimura Suzuki's James Stewart should not be blamed for costing Marvin Mus- quin a likely win at the Atlanta Supercross. After leading 19 laps of the 20-lap main, Mus- quin was fighting back teammate Ryan Dungey when they came up on Stewart who was being lapped. It was then that Musquin bobbled and Dungey got by for the win. Social media imme- diately blew up blaming Stewart for getting in Mus- quin's way. KTM didn't see it that way. The release read: While racing his teammate Ryan Dungey for what would have been his first career 450SX class victory, Musquin made a mistake on his own that ultimately caused him to come up short on a triple and lose the lead position. Stewart, who was not competing for the lead, happened to be near Musquin during his error and has since received undeserved criticism for the incident. The Red Bull KTM Fac- tory Team would like to clarify that there are no hard feelings toward Stewart. Red Bull KTM Factory Team Manager Roger DeCoster added, "After the race a lot of blame was given to James and I just want to make things clear that the mistake from Marvin was not directly caused by James and we shouldn't blame him for it. Credit to Marvin, he rode an amazing race and was under tremendous pres- sure from Ryan for the majority of the race. To lead for 19 consecutive laps is no easy task and how quickly he has adapted to the big bike class in just eight rounds is very impressive." CN FINALLY, LEGISLATION OFF-ROADERS WILL APPROVE OF T he AMA has said that U.S. Sen. Dianne Fein- stein (D-Calif.) has introduced legislation that would designate five existing off-highway-vehicle recreation areas encompassing 142,000 acres in the California desert as permanent Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Areas. The Desert Conservation, Off-Road Recreation and Renewable Energy Act is a revised version of desert legislation the senator introduced in 2015, which also included the designation of three new national monuments. President Barack Obama recently used his authority under the American Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate the Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow and Castle Mountains na- tional monuments covering more than 1.8 million acres of California desert. And Feinstein pledged at that time to introduce legislation to address the aspects of her 2015 bill that the president did not include in his designations. Feinstein says her bill, introduced February 23, "includes all of the carefully negotiated provisions from the bill introduced last year, minus the three monuments." The bill includes permanent protection for five off-highway recreation areas covering 142,000 acres. Wayne Allard, AMA Vice President for Government Relations, said the association is cur- rently reviewing the merits of the Feinstein bill. CN PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB KOY Although he was in the vicinity, KTM says that James Stewart did not cause Marvin Musquin to bobble and give away a likely win at the Atlanta Supercross.