Stewart Back on Track With Eighth Win

James Stewart took his LandM San Manuel YZ450F back to the top of the podium for his eighth victory of the 2009 AMA Supercross series (also an FIM World Championship) at the Superdome in New Orleans for round eleven of seventeen.

Almost 37,000 spectators saw the 23 year old recover from a disappointing outing at Daytona last week when he finished 7th to again beat main title rival Chad Reed and reduce the deficit he faces in the championship standings from 11 to 8 points.

"I've just got to keep on winning and trying," said Stewart who lapped everyone up to Joe Gibbs Racing's Josh Grant in 7th place. "He (Reed) has got seven second-places in a row and it's not going to change now. All I can do is my best, and I was able to do that tonight. I'm happy to get the win, but we've still got a long way to go."

It was Yamaha's 5th win in New Orleans and Stewart's first in the premier class at the venue. The event was also significant for marking Yamaha's Broc Hepler's first podium finish with 3rd position. Hepler -who broke his collarbone at Anaheim 1 - aped Daytona 'podiumee' Jason Lawrence who was not riding in Louisiana after injuring his ankle two days before the race.

Stewart is again playing catch-up to Australian Reed after he DNF-ed the opening race in Los Angeles and worked down a margin of 23 points to front the series. After his slip in Florida seven days before New Orleans, Stewart again has to look towards victory each week to overhaul the reigning champion with just six meetings remaining.

Round twelve takes place at the Edward Jones Bowl in St Louis next Saturday.