Your heart just has to go out for James Stewart. Retro night, 80’s night, whatever you
want to call it marked a celebration for supercross, a first-time ever realization that the
sport, on a grand scale, has produced enough memories, heroes, drama and stories to
build an event around the past. And as much as we super-core fans understand the
history of supercross, you have to think really hard to remember just how small the
sport was way back when, just how insignificant it was to mainstream America, just
how much more popular it is now. Oh yeah, the old-schoolers can point to the “golden
era” and wax on about multiple winners and deep competition in the 1980’s, or millions
of bike sales every year in the 1970s. But supercross in the current era can point out
50,000 fans per race, next day coverage on network television and consistent
reminders in the mainstream press—like USA Today, or ESPN the Magazine—that
supercross is very close to reaching the nation’s collective conscience.
So it’s a real shame that on a night when everyone who was anyone along the road to
success for supercross, namely 37 past legends and champions in this sport, gathered
for one supercross race, one of the best, perhaps the fastest, most talented, most
popular and mainstream of them all, couldn’t be out there. Oh yeah, RJ and Bailey
were there, so were Wardy and Glover and O’Mara and Stanton and Lechien, and even
the OGs, like Brad Lackey, Marty Smith and Marty Tripes. RC and MC were there and
even did some riding. Missing? Well, the exceptions to every SX rule, Jean-Michel Bayle
and Damon Bradshaw. That’s about it. As far as riding talent goes, Anaheim 2, retro
night, was a who’s who for this sport.
Except for that one missing person, the one who bridges the gap between supercross’
past and present, and supercross’ future. The one who broke down barriers (you know
what I mean), introduced the next generation of skills and may possibly boost this
sport to bigger heights than all that came before him. Hey folks, the rider is James
Stewart. He was supposed to be racing and winning here. He was supposed to tame this
’86 replica track and carry the torch for the new school. He was supposed to show
respect to the stars of the past, and get respect from them in return—you could almost
hear all of those legends ready to praise James for his amazing skills on the bike, and
hold him up as the example of how far SX... full story on theweege.blogspot.com
pic from TedescoPhoto Anaheim 2 Gallery