MX Interview: Malcolm Stewart
Shan Moore | July 9, 2013
No longer riding in the shadows of older brother James Stewart, Malcolm Stewart has emerged as a legitimate podium threat in the 2013 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, confirmed by his third-place moto finish at this year’s Budds Creek round.
Picked up at the last moment by the Lucas Oil/Troy Lee Designs Honda Team to ride the 450 class after his previous 250-class team, JDR/J-Star KTM, chose not to campaign the outdoor series, Malcolm has been getting stronger with each race. And while he shares his brother’s tendency for crashing, Malcolm seems to have gained some consistency over the last few outdoor races and his finishes are improving.
At the end of this past Supercross season, after his former team called it quits, Stewart had no plans of riding the outdoor series. In fact, he already had plans outside of motocross. But then opportunity came knocking.
“Actually, me and my practice mechanic were planning on taking a big vacation,” says Stewart. “But then Troy Lee came over to talk to me – unfortunately Christian Craig got hurt – and they came over to me and asked me if I wanted to try the [450] TLD bike, and I said, ‘sure’! I decided that was way better than sitting on the couch spending money. It was a good opportunity for me, and I didn’t have a ride, plus my performance during Supercross wasn’t that good, so I felt I needed to be out on the track doing the best I could to try to get a ride for 2014. That was the only shot I had.”
It was a golden opportunity for the younger Stewart to move up to the 450 class, which is where Malcolm felt he belonged all along.