James Stewart Photo Shoot
James Stewart returns in 2015 with the Yoshimura Suzuki team. This would have been his third-straight Monster Energy Supercross season aboard the Suzuki RM-Z450, but the 29-year-old Floridian was issued an anti-doping violation from the FIM that suspended him from racing for 16 months.
Stewart, who dominated this year’s Red Bull Straight Rhythm, tested positive for amphetamines at 2014 Seattle Supercross, though he was prescribed Adderall.
Stewart and his team plan to appeal with solid evidence that he was not cheating, but the anti-doping violation from the FIM stands. Stewart’s suspension is retroactive from the original drug test administered April 12 during Seattle Supercross. This means he won’t start 2015 SX, but will be able to return in August during the final stretch of AMA Motocross.
Regardless, with less than a week to go ahead of 2015 AMA SX, the Yoshimura Suzuki team of Stewart and his new teammate Blake Baggett were in California for some promotional pics. We gathered the best photos, and attached them here in hi-res form.
Stewart, who began racing at the age of four, is one of the most decorated riders in motocross history. He won the first of a record-breaking 11 amateur national championships by age six. When Stewart turned professional in 2002, he won the Lites AMA Motocross Championship in his rookie year.
After claiming another Lites AMA Motocross title and two Lites AMA Supercross Championships, he moved up to the premier class for the 2005 season. Stewart has since won two AMA Supercross titles and an AMA Motocross Championship (winning every moto in the process), becoming the first African American to win a major motorsports championship.
In 2014 Supercross, Stewart finished on the podium eight times, including six wins. His win at Toronto Supercross allowed him to pass Ricky Carmichael for all time wins in Supercross. Stewart now holds the record with 50 wins in Supercross.