Due to injuries at the previous two rounds of AMA Pro Motocross at Unadilla and Miller Motorsports Park, James Stewart will sit out the final round this weekend at Lake Elsinore.
The Yoshimura Suzuki RM-Z 450 rider will miss round 12 of 12 to fully recover ahead of the 2014 AMA Supercross Championship, which is set to begin January 4 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.
Though the releases didn't mention any specific injury, Stewart did suffer some back issues after crashing at Unadilla, and again had some struggles at Miller, retiring from the races due to pain.
Mike Webb (Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing Team Manager) says: “This was a tough call to make. Especially since we’ve had some good momentum going after the win at Millville.
"But as a team, we all agreed that after the setbacks at the last two races, James’ time would be best spent recovering so that he can focus on Supercross testing in September. After that, we can turn all of our attention to winning the Supercross championship in 2014.”
Heading into Elsinore MX, Stewart took one overall victory (Spring Creek National), and finished on the podium three additional times.
Furthermore, Stewart was fastest qualifier in multiple rounds and picked up five holeshots this season. With these holeshots, Stewart was in contention for the $25,000 Motorcycle-Superstore.com Holeshot Award. In the 2013 Supercross season, the Yoshimura Suzuki rider became one of just three racers ever to have gone nine straight seasons with a win.
