Team Suzuki Press Office – July 1. For Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s James Stewart, round five of the 2014 AMA Pro Motocross Championships was fraught. The Yoshimura Suzuki rider got caught up in not one, but two turn-one pile-ups, but rebounded on his RM-Z450 in both motos and salvaged a hard-fought eighth-place overall at Muddy Creek Raceway.
Stewart came into the Tennessee National having swept the previous round with both moto wins and the overall victory. His hopes for this race were high, but unfortunately, he suffered an alarming amount of bad luck in both motos. In the first, he was collected up in a turn-one melee but still persevered and worked his way back to fifth from almost last. Then the second moto started similarly, with Stewart going down with a group in the first turn and having to come from the back of the field. Still, he rode fearlessly and had raced through to ninth when he went down again in the ruts. Even so, the championship-winning rider pushed ahead and finished 11th in the moto and eighth for the day.
“Today was fun,” said Stewart after the race. “The results weren’t that cool but I had fun today and want to thank the fans; they were awesome out there. Another good thing is that we’ve been working on the Yoshimura Suzuki RM-Z450 and getting really good. I think we only made a couple of clicker changes all day and I had some really good speed. I felt like if I hadn’t gone down on the starts, I would have been out there and had a chance to win the races. So my confidence is still there. I actually think I rode better today than I did when I won at High Point two weeks ago. So now, we’ll go back and rest-up and get ready to make something happen at RedBud.”
Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s next race is round six of the 2014 AMA Pro Motocross Championships on Saturday, July 5th at the RedBud National in Buchanan.
2014 Tennessee MX 450 Results:
1. Ken Roczen (KTM) (2-1)
2. Ryan Dungey (KTM) (1-2)
3. Eli Tomac (Honda) (3-3)
4. Trey Canard (Honda) (4-4)
5. Andrew Short (KTM) (6-8)
6. Weston Peick (Suzuki) (10-5)
7. Brett Metcalfe (Kawasaki) (9-7)
8. James Stewart (Yoshimura Suzuki) (5-11)
9. Josh Grant (Yamaha) (11-6)
10. Justin Brayton (Yamaha) (8-15)
