Main image courtesy of Simon Cudby.
Welcome to Racerhead, coming to you today from the road to Pickerington, Ohio. That’s where AMA headquarters are located, as well as the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Tonight, the Class of 2022 will be inducted into the hall, and that class includes James Stewart, the multi-time AMA Supercross and Pro Motocross Champion—and, for long stretches of his career, “the fastest man on the planet.”
James Stewart grew up in the moto spotlight. As a kid from Haines City, Florida, he was the fastest pee-wee rider in the world until he got on 65s, then he became fastest 65cc rider on the planet, then the fastest 85cc rider, etc., etc. As a matter of fact, Stewart is the fastest 125cc rider in the history of AMA Supercross and AMA Pro Motocross, owning the records for most 125cc wins in both. I can still see and hear him absolutely mopping up fields of 250F riders on his Kawasaki KX125s between 2002 and ’04. He's the last man to have ever won a 125 National on a 125 (Steel City ’04), as well as the last to win a title (also ’04). When Stewart moved up to the premier class, he met both Ricky Carmichael and Chad Reed at the top of their games. Injuries prevented him from making an ’05 title run in SX, while Kawasaki’s lack of a 450 kept him out of title contention outdoors.
But come 2006 it was on, and the ’06 AMA Supercross Championship (also an FIM World Championship) was the closest title battle ever, as all three finished within two points of one another, Carmichael on top in the AMA standings and the KX450F-mounted Stewart on top of the FIM standings. Carmichael would go into semi-retirement for the ’07 season, and Stewart would defeat Reed for his first premier AMA Supercross crown; in ’08 he would go undefeated in 450 Pro Motocross, matching something only Carmichael has ever done. Then he switched from Kawasaki to Yamaha and added a second 450SX title. From there, it seemed like James Stewart would be dominant for years to come. But after beating his rival Reed by just four points in 2009, James Stewart never won another title, as crashes, injuries, and an unfortunate penalty levied by the FIM—Stewart tested positive for Adderall while not having a therapeutic use exemption—haunted the rest of his career. He never really retired, he just sort of faded away.
No matter, Stewart’s legacy as a racer was well established. His speed and technique both must rank among the best ever, and he literally changed the sport when he mastered the now-standard Bubba Scrub technique, something he unveiled at the 2003 Budds Creek 125 National. His 28 wins in the 125 Nationals, 50 wins in AMA 450 Supercross, and 98 total wins in AMA Pro MX and 450 SX make him an immediate AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer, though like every other racer, he could not be nominated until at least five years after his last professional competition. His last race was Washougal ’16, but he didn’t know or announce that he was retiring, so that’s why he didn’t enter last year. (Something to think about: When will Ryan Dungey be eligible, since he returned to racing this summer. And what about Chad Reed, who just participated in the WSX? I’ll ask around this evening, because both will be in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, it’s just a matter of when.)
More recently, James has come back to the sport, with his excellent Bubba’s World podcasts on YouTube, as well as the guest TV commentator at a couple of rounds of the ’22 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championships, also excellent. He continues to run his Seven clothing brand, and also works with his little brother Malcolm Stewart, a Husqvarna factory rider.
One thing to add about James Stewart: When Jeff Emig and I interviewed him back in 1999 for a very early issue of Racer X magazine, one of us asked him about his race. James Stewart is black. Young James, still on minicycles, just shrugged and said, “We all look the same with our helmets on.” And that’s where he was wrong. No one looked the same as James Stewart out there on the racetrack, at least not back then. He was incredible to watch. Of course nowadays you seen elements of his style in every good rider. But in his prime, and even before, James Stewart was truly ahead of his time.
The October 2022 Issue of Racer X Illustrated
Risky Business
From the magazine: Twenty years ago, James Stewart unveiled his new “Bubba Scrub” maneuver at the 2003 Budds Creek National, instantly changing the game of motocross/supercross—as well as the risks.
STEW (Matthes)
Congrats to James Stewart on his AMA Hall of Fame Induction. Talk about a slam dunk for our sport, right? It's not easy to get MXers into the hall (trust me, I was trying for years to get Ron Lechien in) because of the way the voting works—limited to lifetime members with 25 years or more in the AMA, which leads to a lack of representation of motocross people and stuff, but James Stewart? I mean, c'mon! I know Carmichael has more wins and titles; McGrath, Villopoto, Dungey, Tomac, and more have more titles than James Stewart. But there's no one in my history that I've watched that excited me more than Stew. He was the talk of the pits his entire career by the riders and the fans. He was amazing indoors and out and also sometimes a bit eccentric, which added to his legacy Stew. I wrote early on that I thought he was going to break all the records in the sport, and although he didn't quite reach that level, he's second all-time in wins, undefeated season, MXoN wins, won in every class, and so on and so forth. So yeah, he's a Hall of Famer.
It's great that he's back into the sport again. He's always been a personality, and I know he was in kind of a deep, dark place when he hung it up, so good to see his mental health is better. It goes without saying that the sport is better off with James Stewart in it.
Going back into the archives, here's a couple of old podcasts I did with James that are sort of neat to go back and listen to:
2008- http://www.pulpmx.com/sites/default/files/podcasts/classics/Guest_JamesStewart.mp3
2009- http://www.pulpmx.com/sites/default/files/podcasts/classics/Guest_JamesStewart2.mp3
G’Day Good Morning (Jason Weigandt)
As I seem to write every week here, we’re supposed to be in the off-season, but the races keep coming! Last weekend was another, with GNCC packing them into the Ironman, and FIM World Supercross down in Australia. Thanks to time zones, that meant WSX was running very early in the morning in the US, so I got up at 5 a.m., found the FS2 feed, and went for a pedal on the spin bike and watched. Oh yeah. I’m finally gonna sleep in during the off-season. Whenever that starts!
Now, coming into the race, we knew Vince Friese sat second in points to Ken Roczen, and the series sent out a Roczen-versus-Friese PR. This led tons of people to make jokes about the lengths Vince would go through to literally go through Roczen to win this title.
I didn’t indulge. I’ve shared my thoughts on Vince before, and I don’t want to be that click-bait shock-jock guy who just tees off on controversial topics constantly. Plus, I figured nothing would happen! I thought maybe our feelings on Vince Friese were overblown. But no! The guy can’t help himself. When the title was on the line, he indeed went to great lengths to go through his title rival—in this case his teammate Justin Brayton, not Roczen, as a flat tire in the middle moto let both of the MotoConcepts Racing riders back into the title picture. Later, we found out that Vince had offered Grant Harlan money to take Brayton out. (I reached out to Harlan and he confirmed that this happened. Grant didn’t take the money, by the way.)
Now, you might know that I’m a friend of Brayton, but that doesn’t matter here. First, Roczen probably was going to win the title anyway, because he started in front and was only a few points down. Second, Brayton himself said this world title, in a two-round series without any title bonus money on the line, doesn’t mean much. So I don’t even care about that. I only care about repercussions for doing something wrong, because if there isn’t a penalty for doing the wrong thing, what’s the motivation to do the right thing? Offering a guy money for a takeout? Wow.
Anyway, usually when it comes to rough-riding incidents, everyone thinks they have the facts, but really, it’s all just opinion. Everyone has a different take on block passing and hard racing. This time, though, I think we’ve moved from opinion to fact. Friese is out of line, and I have heard so many stories from so many riders that back this up. Look, I didn’t even want to make the jokes leading into this race! I thought Vince was not going to do this, but he did. I repeat: If there isn't a penalty for doing wrong, though, what’s the motivation to do it right?
In happier news, check out the podcasts I did this week with Colt Nichols (on his new Honda HRC ride) and Shane McElrath (who won the WSX SX2 Title). If you prefer to read, we’ll type those out for the website next week. Have a good weekend, everyone. I’m not getting up to watch a race at 5 a.m.!
(This just in. My kid is asking me to wake up at 5 a.m. on Sunday to take him to race a local hare scramble. Come on!)
Visa (DC)
Speaking of Ken Roczen, he’s now headed to the Paris Supercross next week, an event he was not originally scheduled to do. But when the Lawrence brothers, Jett and Hunter, told the organizers that they could not attend due to issues with their visas, Roczen got the call. He will be riding a Honda (though I heard a pretty good rumor just now that he might be on a Pro Circuit–built Kawasaki, and his own team, for 2023). The fact that the Lawrence brothers dropped out led to some of usual social media banter that Honda was somehow to blame—that they didn’t want them to risk injury—but that’s simply not the case. The Lawrence family is from Australia, and they’ve been in the States for several years, during which a lot of things changed in U.S. travel policies for foreign citizens. They have their visas approved and are free to leave, but the risk of being denied reentry without an overseas U.S. embassy approval is too great right now, as many embassies were shut down for a considerable length of time due to the pandemic, and now have massive backlogs of would-be travelers.
The Lawrence brothers’ agent, Lucas Mirtl, and his assistant, Jacob Hayes, spent considerable time and thousands of dollars to try to find a shortcut, but they were ultimately told that it might take weeks for the family to get the visa stamps they would need to get back into the U.S. And because November and December are so important for supercross testing, it wasn’t worth the risk to get stuck on the other side of the ocean. They did promise the Paris SX promoters that they would be there in 2023, no matter what.
Ken Roczen, on the other hand, had all of his immigration status sorted already for WSX and just traveled to both Great Britain and Australia. Unlike the Lawrence brothers, he’s married to a U.S. citizen in his wife, Courtney, which probably makes things much easier when it comes to foreign travel.
This is not a new problem in a sport where lots of participants are not U.S. citizens or green-card holders. You may recall UK citizen Dean Wilson being stuck in Canada for a couple weeks after the 2010 Toronto SX, or Ecuador’s Martin Davalos having to skip the Toronto round altogether while wearing the red plates as 250SX East Region points leader. Lucas told me that the brothers are super bummed to have to skip the Paris SX, and they promise to be there, proper visa papers in order, in 2023.
And speaking of Lucas Mirtl, on a slightly related note, he’s now representing the fast 15-year-old Belgian brothers Sacha and Luca Coenen, and both are signed to factory deals in Europe for ’23, Sacha with KTM and Luca with Husqvarna. MXGeoff Meyer did an interesting story on them this week and what could be called a rebirth of Belgian motocross, which you can read here: https://www.mxlarge.com/news/belgians-and-2023
PARIS! (Matthes)
Soon DC and I will be on a plane heading over for the annual Paris SX. COVID wrecked it a couple of years ago completely, and last year it was just one night, but this year it's back to two nights and back to having some real stars of the sport. Now, we know the Lawrence brothers have pulled out due to visa issues, as DC explained, but the promoters did a great job filling their spots with Ken Roczen and Justin Brayton. Brayton was not in the initial wave of riders announced, which surprised me because it's Paris and it's Brayton. I mean, the man beat James Stewart there, for Pete's sake! Also, he loves the club sandwiches at the hotel there. Brayton told me back then that it was just too tight a schedule for him with the Aussie SX stuff, but nothing has changed there, so maybe when he said "the schedule is just too tight" that meant "they couldn't pay me enough"? Either way, great to have JB10 there, and Roczen will be lining up in Paris for the first time (the promoters have been making runs at him for years) and he'll ride the same bike he has been on for the two WSX rounds.
So add Roczen and Brayton to Eli Tomac, Marvin Musquin, Cooper Webb, and the usual ringers like Soubs and Rammette, and we'll have ourselves quite a good bit of racing there for two nights. Looking forward to it.
Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)
An off-weekend for the entire industry is upon us. With WSX wrapping up last weekend in Melbourne, Australia, everyone is taking a collective deep breath as we look toward November. For riders, November means the beginning of an eight-week boot camp that takes them right into sunny Anaheim. For the mechanics, testing continues, coupled with an endless task of maintaining practice bikes. For the team managers and other staff, they are looking toward 2023 and the countless details that need to be ironed out: team sponsor changes, updating logos, sourcing products, planning travel, coordinating test sessions, corporate meetings, and then some.
It’s a busy time, yes, but also one that allows everyone to be home every night. That may seem automatic to most Americans, but for those entrenched in this sport, it’s a nice aspect of the holiday months. Make no mistake, though, the work and preparation that is beginning now will absolutely determine successes and failures in 2023. Missing the mark in November will cause a tough season ahead. It’s a delayed response that happens to many each year. Sickness, injury, poor testing results, or any other variable can derail what is easily the most critical time of the season. The most interesting part of that is that it’s mostly invisible. Fans won’t immediately know if riders decided to stay home and watch Judge Judy instead of hammering those long miles on the bicycle. They likely won’t know if the riders had a crash that sidelined them for a few weeks, wreaking havoc on preparation. They’ll know in January and February, though. Results tell the tale. Always have, always will.
A New 450 For 4999.00? (Keefer)
While I was testing one of our latest Garage Builds, I researched how much a new 2022 Suzuki RM-Z450 would be locally here in Southern California and found one dealer (Temecula Motorsports) blowing them out for 4,999 plus fees. After I rode our 2022 RM-Z450 Garage Build, it had me thinking that someone could buy a brand-new 450 and purchase quite a few mods for it and still be under the cost of some other-colored models out there. Not everyone needs a 10-14K dirt bike, and Suzuki has found a niche where people can get into our sport or get a new motorcycle for around 5-6K. We need new motocross bikes like this in our sport. Sure, it may have some dated technology, but that technology is still plenty good enough for 95 percent of consumers. Our latest Suzuki Garage Build had some mods from Pro Circuit and was plenty fast enough for me and handled decent enough to where I can have a great time going fast, all for less than $8,500. I don't know about you, but I think most of these other manufacturers should offer some of their older models for longer than just a year or so. Honda does this somewhat with their "R-S" model, but maybe take it a step further and roll that over another 2-3 years and keep the cost down. Food for thought.
SECOND LOOKS (DC)
Last week we used Racerhead for a trip down FIM World Supercross memory lane, explaining that while this new pilot series is a first for the new promoter, WSX has been around in several different incarnations over the years. While researching that history through old issues of Cycle News, old event programs, and magazine features, I found a couple of other things that might be interesting to share.
First, check out this "scrub" photo from way back in 1972 that I found in the Cycle News Archives. While James "Bubba" Stewart is given credit for harnessing the maneuver now known as the Bubba Scrub, there is a Paul Buckley photo of New England legend Jo Jo Keller doing what looks like a scrub at an NESC race in the early eighties. But this was even ten years before that, right? Of course the caption below the unnamed rider says, "Never have we've seen a more radical over-the-jump riding style. He didn't recover, by the way."
And then in the souvenir program for the Rodil Cup race from the 1985 FIM World Supercross Championship, I spotted another photo of then-Yamaha rider Ricky Johnson from the infamous Moto Cross magazine photo shoot with Keith Bowen when they started throwing down some "freestyle" tricks, with RJ doing what looks very close to a nac-nac, almost years before Jeremy McGrath would unveil what became his signature trick in 1994. Of course Jeremy took the BMX-inspired move to a much more difficult level, in the middle of AMA Supercross events, just as Stewart took the scrub to wildly more aggressive and consistent move than Keller ever did, so they deservedly get the lion's share of the credit as innovators, but it is fun to find old photos like this from time to time.
Introducing the Cycle Zone KTM race team
Managed by Team Principal Jeff Crutcher, the organization will see Cheyenne Harmon of Ft. Worth, Texas and Carter Biese of Appleton, Wisconsin aboard 2023 Cycle Zone KTM 250 SXF’s in General Tire Arenacross and Monster Energy Supercross 250 East. Additionally, the team is providing direct support to Supermini athlete Lance Banks during the AX series.
The team will contest in 17 weekends of indoor racing starting with General Tire Arenacross in Topeka, KS. GT AX is a 15 round championship starting in November and finishing in February. After the final round in Memphis, the team will pick up the Supercross 250 East schedule the next week in Tampa, Florida. 9 SX races are on schedule, with the final date in Denver, Colorado.
Jeff Crutcher, Team Principal:
“Our team has grown exponentially, and none of the growth has been possible without the chief support from Cycle Zone Powersports. Now in our third year of operation which we are calling ‘Season 3’, I was able to build a program and a paradigm to attract world class talent like Cheyenne and Carter. Nothing about it has been easy, but that’s because I refuse to do anything in any fashion other than the right way. We lost a few fantastic partners from the previous two years, but where one door closes another opens. Capital generation, parts sourcing, and asset allocation has been no breeze while we are in an economic downturn and still on the back end of the supply chain crisis from 2020. However, small businesses in America are doing well and we have partnered with an eccentric group of companies to fund the effort; providing entry level partner pricing for Formula 1 professional treatment both digitally and in person. We are different than any other team in the paddock, as I operate this unit as a ‘content team that goes racing’.”
Aaron Fisher, Cycle Zone Powersports General Manager:
“Our investment in racing through the pro team shows we are committed to the shop’s heritage of racing KTM’s. As we continue to grow into a national caliber dealership, going racing on a professional level shows we are all-in on powersports and the powersports customer. The goal above all else is to provide our customers an experience they will not find at any other dealership in the country. We’re proud of our grassroots culture in the shop, and invite everyone in to see why our award winning operation goes racing.”
![]()
Cycle Zone KTM ![]()
Cycle Zone KTM ![]()
Cycle Zone KTM
FOR SALE: MOTO/MTB CLASS C RV (DC)
Got an email from my friend Eric Peronnard as he was preparing to head to France soon to help out with the annual Paris Supercross. As we were discussing all things moto, Eric told me he was looking to sell his RV, which he had customized for his moto/mountain bike family adventures. We don't usually run classified ads here in Racerhead, but this thing is pretty sweet and will make a nice ride for another family that's into riding and traveling. Here are the details:
- 2017 THOR Outlaw 29' modified for moto/bike lifestyle (and includes slide-out)
- 24,000 miles, perfect mechanical condition
- Ford V 10 Triton motor
- Carries up to four dirt bikes or five bicycles without removing any parts.
- Rear garage is custom made with extra bedroom above bikes
- Private rear bedroom double-bed with separate AC and TV (accessible from inside RV)
- Main cabin has modified overhead cabin w/ double bed with flat board and quality mattress
- Sofa serves as a 5th-person bed )assuming that two couples can use the front and rear double beds)
- Comfortably sleeps two couples and one single, or three singles.
- RV is in great condition and available in Central Florida with a clean title.
- Asking $80K or best offer
For more info contact: ericperonnard@gmail.com
![]()
Eric Peronnard ![]()
Eric Peronnard
Hey, Watch It!
Monster Energy made this wonderful Loretta Lynn tribute for her memorial celebration, which takes place on Sunday night, live on CMT, beginning at 7 p.m. EST:
First Test on the 2023 Yamaha YZ450F | Racer X Films
Harry Bink and Jayo Archer’s triple flips
THIS IS HISTORY RIGHT HERE! Back to Back Triple Backflips from Jayo Archer & Harry Bink!!!! WHAT A MOMENT!🔥🤯🔥🤯 pic.twitter.com/2HP1IgnnEi
— Nitro Circus (@NitroCircus) October 24, 2022
Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week
“KANYE WEST: YEEZY BRAND REJECTED BY T.J. MAXX”—TMZ.com
“Click Bait: Fishermen plead not guilty to charges of cheating in tourney”—ESPN.com
“News of ‘Twister’ sequel has weather fanatics swirling with excitement”—The Washington Post
Random Notes
Headlines we couldn’t get away with today:
Cooper Webb on the cover of the September 2022 issue of Trail Rider magazine.
From Canvas MX, the customized gear Ryan Villopoto wears: “We are excited to finally open up our rider support program! Want to get sponsored by the only gear company that offers custom gear made right here in the USA? Now is your chance. Fill out the application in the link below and join the movement.”
Thanks for reading Racerhead. See you at the races!
