James Stewart
Yoshimura Suzuki
At Monster Energy Cup, you said ‘I am nowhere near where I want to be or need to be physically.’ You’ve had some extra time on the bike. Where do you feel you are at this point?
I feel pretty good, actually. The off-season didn’t go as best it could as far as racing life, but the last few weeks I’ve been able to get back on the bike. My guys came down and we worked on a few things at the house. Fortunately for me, I was able to ride back in Florida. They came to me, and I got a lot of good time in. Besides racing, I feel pretty good–probably the best I’ve felt in a long time–so I’m just kind of excited to get back out there. I know it is going to be a long season. I haven’t raced in a long time, and even the races I raced over the off-season and that, those really don’t count. I was just kind of getting my feet wet. But, physically, riding my motorcycle, I feel pretty good.
A lot of people don’t realize how much they love something, especially this sport, until they don’t have it. A year later you are back here. What are the feelings and the emotions, coming back to Anaheim?
For me, the emotions are kind of…I’m excited to be back racing. This is probably the biggest press conference I’ve ever seen here, so I think there are a lot of people who are excited also. You know, for me, I’ve got a couple new things going on with some new sponsors, with DC, a great opportunity to be with those guys, and kind of filming some things. So, you know, what I’ve done in my career, I actually have a chance to reflect on this, but…it’s funny. You come up here and it’s always the same. It’s kind of tense. Everybody’s uptight and, you know, the same thing is going to happen when we go racing. I’m just going to have fun with it. I’m blessed and happy to be back, and I think all these guys are feeling the same thing. We’re all excited to be back racing.”
You’ve been here where you’ve been the young kid who didn’t know how to win. Now that you have championships under your belt, were there people that helped you get along that path, and are you ready to assume that role now that you are one of the older guys?
Honestly, I think a lot of things change when you are dealing with age. I think you can look at it two different ways. You can look at it as, you are the older guy. You can look at it as, you are the more experienced guy. For me, I think I have found a way to be happy away from my motorcycles, and away from racing, because I couldn’t do that [in the past]. I learned how to hone in on the things that need to be done and not hone in on the things that I can’t control. Coming back, I just look forward to all the positives as far as just coming out there and racing and all that. But, I also look forward to the negatives, too. There are always positives in everything, whether it is good or bad. Not being able to race was probably one of the best years of my life. I found a lot of cool things, personally, and really got to enjoy myself at home, watching these guys racing. I had a chance to really find myself. I got a little taste of what retirement feels like, being away from motorcycles, especially the way it happened to me because I was planning on going racing and not planning on retirement. I think it made me a better person, and it’s going to make me a better racer. I’m just ready to get out of here, start this year-long journey and take it week by week.
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