USA Insider No.153: Stewart Update
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.
A conversation last week with Yoshimura Suzuki Team Manager, Mike Webb, revealed a lot. Luckily, Webb and I go back to his days running Suzuki’s GNCC factory team (we spent about a decade working within the series together) so he was willing to give me some straight scoop on a team that has been awfully quiet lately. Despite rumours, guesses and what-ifs, James Stewart and the team remain intact and in tandem as the WADA hearing still lays in the distance. When will it happen? I really don’t know, and James, of course, can’t really reveal much since this whole process is now pretty much all in lawyer’s hands, and US lawyers are quick to remind that anything you say can and will be used against you in court. So they advise against saying anything. Basically, we are where we were back when this started in June: James isn’t denying he took an amphetamine, but the question comes down to him getting the proper permission (Therapeutic Use Exemption in WADA terms) to use it while racing. This is a paperwork battle. A side story developed, though, as many have wondered if his current team and sponsors are going to stick with him through this. According to Webb, Suzuki and Yoshimura are 100 percent in support of their rider.
That said, the team and James don’t know what the outcome will be. It’s still very possible that he won’t be allowed to race supercross in January. So the team has a backup plan with a new hire that will be either James’ teammate, or the solo gunner if James can’t compete. I can’t tell you who it is but I will just say he will wear a number that looks very, very familiar on a Suzuki.
In the meantime, the rest of us wait and guess, just like Webb and his team will. Will James be on the gate at Anaheim? Is he looking at a two-year ban, which is essentially a career death-sentence? Right now, it’s between lawyers and a pending trial. We all want more information on this, but it sounds like no one is hoping, waiting and guessing more anxiously than James Stewart himself.
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