Interview With James Stewart - Dirt Rider Magazine

James Stewart's 2010 Supercross season ended after the third round with a wrist surgery that's kept Stewart away from racing... until now. James was out at Milestone Raceway (www.milestonemx.com) yesterday, August 4, and I grabbed a few minutes to talk to him between rides about what he has in store for the rest of the 2010 race season.Pete Peterson: How long has it been since you've been back on a bike?James Stewart: This is about my fourth week, I've ridden maybe ten times. It's coming along. We're getting there, not as quickly as I'd like, but we're getting there.

PP: You're out in California rather than Florida. What bring you out here?JS: Just to do a little testing. Obviously I haven't ridden that much so we haven't really had time to test. I came out here before and tested but the tracks weren't that good so we decided to come back out.PP: The rumor is we're going to see you racing in New York. Is that true?JS: Yeah, I plan on racing Unadilla next weekend. I think it's going to be fun to just get back out there and see where I'm at.PP: At the beginning of the year was it your plan to race Outdoors?

JS: I don't know if we were going to be able to race them or not. Obviously we were focused on supercross and I was planning on racing some this year, but after I got hurt, then it was like, "All right, we have to go all-in and try to race them all." It was just one of those things... I couldn't tell you either way what we were going to do.PP: Is it harder or easier when you're sitting out to see a rookie doing so well like Dungey has?JS: It doesn't really make a difference. I think the best guy's winning right now, so I don't really have a problem with that. I think he's riding good. He did what he needed to do this year to win the championships. I think it's great.

PP: What's the plan after Unadilla?JS: The plan's to race the next few. I'm going to use these next four races to just get some time in racing before Anaheim comes around. Then by Anaheim I should be 100% healthy.PP: A lot of people want to know about Motocross of Nations. Where do you stand on that?JS: I think Dungey should probably be the MX1 guy and Trey Canard or Jake Weimer maybe should be MX2, and then I think the MX3 class... If I go there and I win races I'd like to have that spot, but if I don't then I think we should give it up to Andrew Short.PP: Has there been any benefit to having to take this time off? Has it recharged the batteries, is there any positive spin?JS: I think it just makes me appreciate it more, which wasn't a question before. I had plenty of time off last year when we couldn't race so I basically had a year off from racing. I think I just enjoy it a little bit more and don't take anything for granted.