Betty Blog #7

Betty Blog #7

By Brett Lee

The reporting on the sport is excellent today. I like the depth that writers and the media are going to find stories. I like what is reported because it isn’t always popular, but a truthful perspective. I like the fact there is volume, which maybe the hardest thing of all to do.

I will admit, to be a motocross writer here in Canada is sometimes a stretch. There are six months of racing, 10 Pro races of substance, and several writers covering different angles. How to write something fresh and unique is difficult. It is also difficult to have personal relationships with everyone involved in the series and report in a way that isn’t favourable. I know I personally pull back, especially after one story got me in some hot water. The US series has more events, more riders, more coverage, and more media. That being said the challenges are essentially the same. Be relevant, be unique, create content and hope you don’t piss to many people off.

James Stewart

This leads to what started me thinking about this. James Stewart, who to me is one of the most fascinating characters of the supercross story line, is a child prodigy; a rider who has constantly won at all levels. I assume he is not living up to his own standard and definitely the standard we as fans have become accustomed to.

Questions flood in to Stewart. Is it the tires? When James went to JGR, he switched to the Pirelli tire, a tire that is successful in Grand Prix racing, but has been over shadowed by the other brands in America. Tires were easy to point to at the season opener when Stewart tried to hide the fact he was using Dunlops and looked uncomfortable. However, with their reputation on the line the PR department has been hard at work from Pirelli. They have been very open about how hard the JGR team and Pirelli are working to make those tires work. It seems if the tires are off, it is hard to believe they aren’t close.

Is it the bike setup? The new Yamaha has never been given rave reviews at the top Pro level and James never has seemed consistent since moving to Yamaha. In November, Stewart went on record to say the JGR Yamaha was better than previous bikes, nothing like the production bike and a bike he could win on. A lot of resources have been dumped into the program and James has been successful on it. In fact he has consistently set fast practice times, got holeshots and won qualifiers along with a main event this season.

The team and the people around him, including his trainer, have been questioned. Yet again many of the people around him are the very same people that shared some of Stewart’s most successful days. When Stewart was on Kawasaki, Team Manager Jeremy Albrecht was there. His father has been a staple in his career and the people close to him remain the same.

The only question that needs to be asked now that most media do not seem prepared to either ask or hear is…is it Stewart himself? Has his time begun to set as the unbeatable James? It happens to all the best in any sport. The time at the top is limited. As hard as it was to believe when Ricky started beating Jeremy, James started beating Ricky. It just may be the time that the Ryans take over from James?

Is the fitness of youth we all enjoyed at a particular age beginning to wane, or is he tiring? Fitness is a hard thing to measure, but James, whether he choices to or not, seems to slow at points in the race, which is not in character with his old self. He used to destroy from gate drop to the checkers. It has been noted as a weakness that he didn’t know when to turn it back a notch and often crashed hard.

Or has he been caught by the pack of riders pushing the pace? The sport continues to evolve. Go to any local track and see it on a smaller scale. Kids jump further, farther and go faster than ever before. Perhaps this is simply the evolution of the sport, catching up to one of the leaders.

It is a dangerous question and dangerous water to wade in for media people. The risk of alienating one of the highest profiled athletes the sport has seen is pretty high. Top athletes thrive on self confidence, and to question that is likely viewed as a personal attack. As I said earlier, it is tough to produce unique content and even tougher when blackballed. There is also the very high risk of being wrong. With a rider like Stewart, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see him go on a hot streak and rebound to his position of dominance, making everyone who questioned it to look uninformed and … stupid.

So when will someone really put themselves out there and say “your bike looks to handles at least as good as anyone else”? The JGR team appears to be one of the best. Is the problem James Stewart? Unexplainable mistakes, bad starts and at times a lack of speed seem to be the issue…comment on that. I assume that would be the last interview anyone did with James Stewart (I could be wrong) but at this point in the season it seems like a fair yet tough question.