[Features]

USA Insider No.139: Going After Each Other

10 years ago | Words: Jason Weigandt

Welcome to our weekly web-exclusive column, Transmoto’s USA Insider presented by Ipone. Penned each week by our man on the ground, Transmoto’s US Correspondent, Jason Weigandt, the USA Insider presents the story-behind-the-stories of the AMA supercross and motocross scene.

Seattle’s supercross might not have looked like a big deal, but deep inside the battle for the win was actually as intense as it gets. The math says Ryan Villopoto is vanquishing the competition for the fourth year in a row, and his Seattle win looks like just another in a procedural run toward the title. But James Stewart did not want it to go that way.

Stewart, as we all know, has steadily rebuilt himself into the same force he used to be, and some of his performances this season were vintage. In Toronto, he was unbeatable by anyone on earth, and he sprinkled in some straight-up defeats for Villopoto throughout the year. Consistency might have given Villopoto that big points lead, but Stewart’s five victories this season gave him reason to believe again that he was the fastest man on the planet. He wasn’t going to win the title this year, but he’d generated plenty of pride during this year’s career reboot. That pride is a feeling he doesn’t want to give up.

So as soon as Villopoto grabbed the early lead in Seattle, Stewart set about making quick passes to get into second and then try to run him down. Earlier in the season, while Stewart was still feeling his way back to the forefront, he was riding more patiently. Check his Anaheim 1 ride, where he slowly but surely climbed to the front of the pack before really attacking after the halfway point. Then, he was testing himself. At other races this year, he put in his laps, and wherever he finished, he finished. Now, he knew better what he was capable of, so he went for the win immediately, ripped past the likes of Ryan Dungey to go after Villopoto. With the pace RV was running, it was going to take an incredible ride to catch him, but that’s what Stewart once again knows he’s capable of. So he unleashed fury, jumping a quad, launching into the whoops, pushing the front end hard in corners. Even when he cased the quad incredibly hard, he just went right back and jumped it on the next lap! Earlier in the season, he was taking what he could get. Now, he was going after it. He wanted to win badly, because he wants to keep it established that although Villopoto has him covered in points, Stewart now has him covered on the track.

He couldn’t make any ground on Villopoto this time, though. He ran him down in St. Louis, passed him and held him off in San Diego, but couldn’t get him in Seattle. Villopoto was just too good, too solid and too fast on Saturday night. There’s a lot of pride on the line between those two, so don’t expect either one to lay down the next time this scenario develops.

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