If you are going to Vegas this weekend for the US Open supercross event, yesterday brought bad news with the withdrawal of Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael from the event. Today brings good news in the form of James Stewart’s announced participation.
Stewart has been recovering from knee surgery following an injury during the outdoor motocross series. Apparently, Stewart is feeling fine and ready to ride this weekend in Las Vegas. Here is the official press release from Kawasaki.
IRVINE, Calif. (October 10, 2007) – Monster Energy Kawasaki announced today that James Stewart will ride the U.S. Open in Las Vegas this weekend, his first race since recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.
After a couple of weeks off the bike for rehabilitation, Stewart made a quick recovery and has been putting time in at the team’s test track in Corona, Calif. Stewart and his team decided to utilize the U.S. Open as a warm-up for the 2008 racing season.
“Since James hasn’t raced since the end of July, we wanted to use this race as a warm-up for next year,” said Team Manager Mike Fisher. “Three months is a long time to not race, so we want him to go out there and get a 20-lap race under his belt. If we didn’t ride here, it would be a very long time between races.”
The U.S. Open will be Stewart’s first race since July 29 in Washougal, Wash.
“My knee feels good,” said Stewart. “It’s probably feeling stronger than it has in a long time. I know it will be good to get a race in before January. I haven’t raced supercross since Las Vegas in May but knew I should get out there, especially for my team. I’m excited to see how it goes.”
Stewart will be joined by teammate Timmy Ferry at the U.S. Open, which starts Friday, October 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
