MALCOLM STEWART … A DREAM RIDE!

After Malcolm Stewart’s career best sixth-place overall finish in the 2021 AMA Supercross series (including his first 450SX podium at the penultimate round in Salt Lake City), how good was it to see the guy finally get the call-up to join a factory team in the premier class for season 2022?! In case you missed the news a few months back, the 28-year-old Stewart has inked a two-year contract with the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing Team; a deal that’ll see him join the team’s existing 450-class efforts in both AMA Supercross and Motocross championships (in fact, 2022 will be the first time since 2014 that Stewart has contested both Supercross and Motocross series).

Anyway, the news prompted us to reflect on Malcolm Stewart’s long journey from ‘little’ bro to one of the sport all-time greats to a legit factory rider in his own right. Cast your mind back to 2012, when Malcolm was riding for the Australian-owned JDR J-Star KTM team in America (alongside PJ Larsen and Australia’s Matt Moss) and then got the chance to travel to Australia to shoot a novel film project called ‘Dream Ride’ – a big-budget affair that combined an exotic FNQ location with high-end cinematic cameras.

Here’s the behind-the-scenes pictorial we did about that ground-breaking ‘Dream Ride’ shoot in FNQ, which ran in the June 2012 (#20) issue of Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine, and the trailer for the movie, featuring Stewart and Australia’s Josh Cachia.

The following year, the JDR boys were at it again, filming ‘Dream Ride 2’ (this time, in Hawaii, with Chase Bell joining Stewart and Cachia) – a project that generated another incredible movie, along with a cover shot and wall calendar that we cover-mounted on the January 2013 issue (#27) issue of Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine, and this classic online photo gallery. Notice a young Jase Macalpine in those images? Yep, the former team JDR production guy who’s gone on to run the successful Gypsy Tales podcast. Memories, eh…