Page 48 - Issue_67

MALCOLM STEWART
450 SX / 8TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / KILPATRICK DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> After starting the 2018 AMA Monster Energy Supercross season at the second round in Houston as a ll-in rider for JGR Suzuki, Malcolm Stewart has continued to grow comfortable with the team. The Floridian initially penned a two race deal with the Suzuki backed effort out of North Carolina, but an injury to Justin Bogle and a personal sponsorship with BTO Sports has extended his stay with the team. Stewart has been making steady improvements each and every weekend and he logged an impressive qualifying time at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, tting into the seventh position in the 450 classi cation. He wasn’t able to execute the best of starts when the gate fell to signify the start of the second heat race, but his cunning on the track carried him up the eld. Stewart found himself in eighth position behind Kyle Chisholm on the opening lap and quickly disposed of the Yamaha rider, switching his focus to Tyler Bowers in sixth position. He followed the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider past Matt Bisceglia and made his move one lap later, promoting himself into fth position. Mookie’s aggressive style allowed him to carry lots of speed through both the sand section and the whoops, providing him with two consistently avail- able passing opportunities on the track. The Suzuki rider quickly advanced into fourth position at the expense of Broc Tickle, tucking in behind Justin Brayton as the laps wound down. Stewart found his way around the Honda rider with only a couple of minutes left on the board, earning an exceptional gate pick for the main event with a solid third place nish. In the main event, Stewart was able to harness some of the positive energy that he accumulated from his heat race nish, squeaking out of the rst corner in eighth position. Although he has shown the potential to nish inside the top ten on multiple occasions throughout the year, Stewart’s best main event nish of the season thus far is an eleventh place. The Floridian looked determined to improve his best result, holding rmly in eighth position behind Tickle for the opening third of the moto. It’s appar- ent that Mookie’s tness on the motorcycle has come a long way since the beginning of the year, especially on a demanding track such as the one inside Raymond James Stadium. On the eighth lap, Stewart received a gift from his JGR Suzuki teammate, Justin Hill, and moved up to seventh place. The next eight laps that followed produced some close racing from the two teammates as Mookie kept Hill at bay, but he was only able to hold onto the position until the fteenth lap. As the twenty minutes on the clock wound down, Stewart fought tooth and nail to maintain seventh posi- tion, but the charging Husqvarna of Dean Wilson had other ideas. Nonetheless, Mookie was able to bag his rst top ten nish of the year with an impressive eight place result, placing him fteenth in the overall points standings heading to round nine in Atlanta.
48 GRITMOTO • FEBRUARY 25, 2018