All of you rabid James Stewart fans out there need to check out ESPNews today at 2:40 p.m. ET / 11:40 a.m. PT, as James will be appearing live as part of ESPN’s Black History Month celebration.

In 2007, James became the first African-American to win a major motorsports title when he claimed the AMA Supercross championship. He followed that up with the 2008 AMA Motocross title, and last year, after moving to the San Manuel Yamaha team, he again won the AMA Supercross championship.

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At this point there is no good news or firm date as to when James will be back on the gate and racing again, but we are happy to report to all of the lucky fans who have a ticket to Anaheim 3 tomorrow night that JS will be in the house! While he is forced to sit out of the race anyway due to his recent wrist surgery, James decided to try his hand at a little commentating; he’ll give it a go tomorrow night at Angels Stadium. Even if you’re going, don’t forget to watch the broadcast on CBS at 12 pm ET on Sunday to see what James has to say about his competition…

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After the abuse that James’ body took during last weekend’s crashes in Phoenix, the defending SX champ had an irregular week of preparation for Anaheim 2. With a sore wrist, shoulder, and ankle holding him back, James was unable to ride all week, but showed up in Anaheim to give it his all toward staying in the championship points fight. Despite sitting out of the opening ceremonies to conserve some energy, James braved his way to the line for Supercross heat number one.

When the gates dropped, JS7 found himself chasing Tommy Hahn around the A2 circuit during the majority of lap number one, but threw down a pass just before crossing the finish line double for the first time. From there, Hahn made a pass back on James to reclaim the lead, but Stewart retaliated just a lap later to once again control the pace up front. On lap number six, James’ teammate Josh Hill, who rode incredibly well all night, snuck by to take over the lead. Safely within qualifying position, James followed Hill in for a relatively conservative second place finish.

A good start would be critical to accomplishing James’ goal of finishing on the podium in the A2 main event, and he did just exactly that. After rocketing down the start straight and crossing the holeshot stripe in the second spot, James immediately made a pass for the lead. James would go on to lead the first five laps of the main before giving way to Hill during the sixth go around, and then Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey got by on lap number 12. Despite riding through obvious pain, James held on to finish in a very respectable third place when all was said and done.

Collecting valuable series points, James now heads into another week of rehab on his injuries before lining up in the gate for round number four in San Francisco. “It’s tough,” James commented after the race. “I haven’t ridden all week, and about eight laps into it I just couldn’t hold on anymore. Ryan and Josh were riding really well, and I just didn’t have anything for them. I had sections where I was pretty good, but they were just on it. Congratulations to those guys, and I’ll just try to come back next week and see what happens.”

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