Northern California’s motocross faithful packed into the home of the Oakland Raiders (and A’s) on Saturday night to witness round number four of the 2012 AMA Supercross Series, and for the second year in a row, James took home the win in NorCal after a hard-fought battle!

Having lost his practice mechanic, Mark “Tex” Adams, earlier in the week to a tragic traffic accident, James no doubt rode an inspired main event, and later dedicated the win to his fallen friend. The victory was James’ first of the year, and gives him a much-needed boost in confidence as the series heads back to Anaheim for round number five next weekend.

Here’s how James put his Red Bull-backed JGRMX Yamaha on the top of the box in Oaktown…

SUPERCROSS QUALIFYING HEATS
• When the gate dropped for Supercross Heat #2, James got a great jump to enter turn one with the momentary lead, but after nearly washing out his front end midway through the corner, he dropped back to fifth in the blink of an eye.
• After quickly regrouping and weaving his way to the front, James put a move on Andrew Short to take over the lead on lap five.
• Under pressure from Ryan Villopoto at the finish, JS7 held strong to take the heat win—his fourth of the series.

SUPERCROSS MAIN EVENT
• After another great jump out of the gate, James circulated lap number one in the fifth spot, but made a couple quick passes to move into second by the beginning of lap three.
• After patiently stalking early leader Chad Reed for several laps while Villopoto pressured from behind, James finally made a pass for the lead on lap number 10.
• By lap 15, JS7 had opened up a fairly comfortable four-second lead over Reed, but still had plenty of lapped riders to contend with ahead.
• Riding strong and confident up front, James successfully navigated through the slower traffic, and then crossed the checkers in dominant fashion to capture his first win of the series.
• During his podium speech, James proudly dedicated his win to Tex.

SUPERCROSS RESULTS
1. James Stewart
2. Chad Reed
3. Ryan Villopoto
4. Ryan Dungey
5. Andrew Short
6. Kevin Windham
7. Davi Millsaps
8. Jake Weimer
9. Justin Brayton
10. Josh Hansen

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Southern California’s weather experts got a little over ambitious leading into round three of the 2012 AMA Supercross Series on Saturday, as the 100% rain forecast in Los Angeles was eventually upgraded to a beautifully sunny, zero precipitation afternoon inside Dodger Stadium. Still, an abbreviated schedule had already been mandated, leaving James and the rest of the riders to learn the LA circuit in a single practice session. Shortly after dropping the quickest lap time early-on in Supercross Qualifying Group A, James went down while exiting the track’s lone whoop section, forcing a premature trip back to the pit area.

Despite the lack of seat time heading into the night program, JS7 came out swinging in his heat, taking the win and the number one gate pick into the main event. When the gate finally dropped for the premier-class final, James finally nabbed that start he’d been searching for, and despite a mid-race mishap that saw him briefly hit the LA soil, he piloted his JGRMX Yamaha to a podium finish for the first time in 2012.

Here’s how all the action went down in Chavez Ravine…

SUPERCROSS HEAT #1
• After a great jump out of the gate to kick off Supercross Heat #1, James narrowly missed the holeshot as Mike Alessi snuck a wheel in at the stripe.
• JS7 quickly took over the front spot on the track’s first rhythm section, and immediately began stretching his lead.
• Despite only completing a handful of laps after crashing during the day’s one and only practice session, James had no problem learning the track as he motored on to a fairly uneventful heat race win.
• James is now a perfect three-for-three in 2012 heat races.

SUPERCROSS MAIN EVENT
• The highly anticipated Superclass-class main event rolled into the gate at just before 9:50pm local time, and when it finally dropped, Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey grabbed the holeshot, but he was quickly passed by Ryan Villopoto, with JS7 close-in-tow in the third spot.
• Unfortunately, a huge crash further back in the pack involving Honda’s Trey Canard and Star-Valli Yamaha’s Ryan Morais forced out the red flag and subsequent restart.
• When the action resumed some 15-minutes later, James jumped out to a solid second-place start, with Dungey close behind in third.
• On lap four, James got passed by a hard-charging Chad Reed while searching for the fast line, but kept the Honda rider in his sights as he continued establishing his race pace.
• After an aggressive inside pass on Weimer to take over second on lap number eight, JS7 went back after Reed out front.
• On lap 12 while closing the gap on the leader, James over-jumped the second triple in a triple-triple rhythm section, and laid it down in the following right-hand corner.
• Remounting in the third spot, James looked slightly out of sync while regaining composure, and Villopoto slowly began creeping up in fourth.
• When the checkers finally flew after 20 grueling laps, JS7 held on for a hard-fought third-place finish—his first podium of 2012.

SUPERCROSS RESULTS
1. Chad Reed
2. Ryan Dungey
3. James Stewart
4. Ryan Villopoto
5. Brett Metcalfe
6. Davi Millsaps
7. Josh Hansen
8. Broc Tickle
9. Kevin Windham
10. Mike Alessi

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In front of a near sold-out crowd inside Phoenix, Arizona’s Chase Field, Round 2 of the 2012 AMA Supercross Series stormed through the desert as the world’s best Supercross racers threw down in their quest to establish early authority in the series points chase. Despite being drained and under the weather all week leading into Phoenix, JGRMX/Red Bull’s James Stewart battled his way to another heat race win, but was unfortunately only able to scrape together an eighth-place finish in what proved to be a challenging 20-lap main event.

With 15 races still to run in the 17-race series, James’ championship hopes are still alive and well as the tour heads back west to LA, but the mighty number seven was less than enthusiastic after his challenging day in Phoenix.

Here’s how the action unfolded…

SUPERCROSS QUALIFYING HEATS
• When the gate dropped for the first Supercross-class heat of the night, James rounded turn number one just inside the top-ten, but immediately went to work on the riders up front.
• By the halfway point, JS7 had maneuvered himself into the third spot after making quick work of Mike Alessi, and then set his sights on Chad Reed in second.
• After some rubbing between Reed and Andrew Short for the lead, James took advantage of the slowed momentum and passed both riders to move into first in one fell swoop.
• Once out front, James threw down three more lighting fast laps despite his lack of energy, and piloted his JGRMX Yamaha to an impressive heat win.

SUPERCROSS MAIN EVENT
• James had a horrific first lap after getting a bad jump out of the gate, and found himself circulating just outside the top-15 as the field crossed the finish line double for the first time.
• On lap seven, just after passing Brett Metcalfe for sixth, James got caught up in a sandy section two turns before the finish, and instantly found himself back in the 15th spot.
• Despite a valiant effort to climb his way back inside the top-ten, JS7 finished the night in a disappointing eighth-place.

“It was a tough day all around,” James commented after the race. “I’m really low on energy thanks to being sick, and I just couldn’t get a start tonight to help out my cause. We still have a long ways to go, though, and I’m looking forward to getting the JGR/Toyota Yamaha on the box next weekend in LA.”

SUPERCROSS RESULTS
1. Ryan Dungey
2. Jake Weimer
3. Ryan Villopoto
4. Kevin Windham
5. Chad Reed
6. Andrew Short
7. Trey Canard
8. James Stewart
9. Brett Metcalfe
10. Josh Hansen

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