Malcolm Stewart on Second Moto DNF: “took a stinger to the knee. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious”
Malcolm Stewart pulled off after two laps in the second moto Saturday due a knee injury but says, “It's nothing to be too concerned about.”
Stewart finished 12th in the first moto but dabbed his knee while running around 17th place on the third lap, forcing him to pull off early.
Stewart’s post-race quote from Husqvarna said the following:
"Pala is always an interesting track. Practice, I struggled a little bit, but I felt I had some good momentum going into Moto 1, and actually rode a pretty solid race. And then in Moto 2, the first lap, I dabbed my knee in a corner a little bit, which was frustrating. It's nothing to be too concerned about – I pulled off for the rest of the race just to make sure that nothing was too crazy, and now we'll re-evaluate and hopefully line up in Sacramento."
He posted on Instagram:
Practice was a slow start for me, but we rode much better in the first moto. In the second moto, on the first lap, I had a quick dab on the back side of the track and took a stinger to the knee. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious, but it hurts like heck when it happens. Appreciate everyone cheering me on out there. 🙌🏿
As for Stewart’s teammate RJ Hampshire, the #24 rider rode well in the motos. In the first moto he moved from outside the top ten to finish sixth, and moto two he came through seventh, his 6-7 finishes giving him seventh overall. It was a solid day for Hampshire, who last raced the Houston SX on January 31 before a foot injury derailed his first full 450SX season in Monster Energy AMA Supercross.
Hampshire’s debut 450 season last summer went really well, with progress made every weekend, especially considering he had wrist surgery just days after the ’25 SX finale. he landed on the overall podium at Ironman Raceway (Second overall) and had six top-five overall finishes before scoring fifth in the championship. Expect Hampshire to be fighting for top fives again this weekend.
Hampshire said after the race.
"Fox Raceway was positive for me. I was in the fight around that top-five area for most of the day – I wish I could've finished the motos off a little better, but this was one of my better Pala results. I'm leaving here pretty happy knowing that we have a lot more to give next weekend and in the upcoming races. We learned a lot this weekend under race conditions, which is something you can't replicate at home, and we made positive changes with both the bike and my riding."
He told our own Jason Weigandt after the race, “The last five laps, I wasn’t good,” noting bike issues late in the moto. He also told Weigandt he collided with Mitchell Oldenburg while lapping the #52, which cost him one position at the very end of moto two. Watch the Weege Show below for the full interview.
Both riders are searching for a deal for 2027 following the news that the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna in-house factory race team would be shutting down after the Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship concludes in the fall.
