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| 450 Words: Lakewood | June 30, 2008 |
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| | By Jason Weigandt; Photos by Carl Stone |
| | Printer Friendly | |  | | | The last ingredient in a great athlete’s career isn’t talent, work or success. It’s leadership. Every sport has players who can rise above the average, produce big stats and reel off highlight clips on Sportscenter. But only a very select few of those athletes ever become true leaders, the kind that put a sport on their back and carry it to the masses.
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James Stewart is leading AMA Motocross | | | The NBA sees LeBron James as a savior not just because of his talent. LeBron seems most willing to carry himself as the sport’s off-court role model (Kobe Bryant has been producing highlight reel clips for a dozen years, but his public image is spotty). Alex Rodriguez is considered the best player in baseball, but he’s drawn cheers and jeers throughout his career. And Barry Bonds? Come on.
James Stewart is trying to transcend into a leadership role for our sport. The talent, work, and success are already there. His win on Saturday night in Colorado pushed him into a tie for second with Bob Hannah on the all-time AMA Motocross win list already. But now James is working on going to the next level off of the track.
The Thunder Valley National in Lakewood, Colorado was the first Saturday night race in the history of the AMA Toyota Motocross Championships. Yes, there have been night motocross races before, but nothing of the size and scope of an AMA National. This track was bigger and the riders were faster than the night races that have taken place around the country for decades.
As you would expect from an event so new, the race wasn’t perfect. After practice on Friday, a bunch of smaller light towers were brought in to supplement the seven massive MUSCO light towers. The lighting was better, then, for the racing on Saturday night, but it still wasn’t anything rivaling day light. The basic consensus? Nice concept, but they still needed more lights.
A few riders and insiders went to either side of that fence, with some saying they hated it, and other saying it wasn’t really a big deal. But one man never flinched, and never uttered a negative thought. And that was Stewart. Surely at some point James found a corner of the track that could have used more light. But he never complained. Because just outside of that corner was a giant crowd—much larger than last year, when the race ran in 100 degree heat on Sunday afternoon.
Today, James is seeing a bigger picture than just winning each individual race. Daylight may have made his job easier this weekend, but it wouldn’t have made his sport bigger. The summer night atmosphere made for a fun weekend for fans, and it also opened the sport to a live Saturday night TV airing on SPEED. Stewart delivered, winning the race and saying the right things before and after. Bringing in more light is easier than bringing in new fans, and the leader in Stewart knows the difference.
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