KTM: James Stewart Not To Blame
Kit Palmer | March 2, 2016
The Red Bull KTM Factory Team wanted to further address the situation between one of its riders, Marvin Musquin, and Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart that took place during the last weekend’s Atlanta Supercross. The team issued a release saying that it does not blame Stewart for a last-lap encounter between the two that might’ve cost Musquin the race win. Many have criticized Stewart for not heeding the blue flag, which some say caused Musquin into making a mistake that allowed Ryan Dungey to pass him. Dungey went on to win the race, while Musquin finished second.
The release states:
While racing his teammate Ryan Dungey for what would have been his first career 450SX Class victory, Musquin made a mistake on his own that ultimately caused him to come up short on a triple and lose the lead position. Stewart, who was not competing for the lead, happened to be near Musquin during his error and has since received undeserved criticism for the incident. The Red Bull KTM Factory Team would like to clarify that there are no hard feelings toward Stewart.
Red Bull KTM Factory Team Manager Roger DeCoster added, “After the race a lot of blame was given to James and I just want to make things clear that the mistake from Marvin was not directly caused by James and we shouldn’t blame him for it. Credit to Marvin, he rode an amazing race and was under tremendous pressure from Ryan for the majority of the race. To lead for 19-consecutive laps is no easy task and how quickly he has adapted to the big bike class in just eight rounds is very impressive.”