5. James Stewart
- 2-time 125cc National MX Champion
- 1-time 450cc National MX Champion
- Most 125cc National wins in history (28)
- One of two racers ever to achieve a perfect MX season, winning 24 out of 24 motos in 2008
- 48 total MX National victories
- Last person to win the 125/250cc National Championship on a 125cc two-stroke
If you never got to see James Stewart racing motocross on a KX125 two-stroke, get over to YouTube and pull it up. Stewart is easily the fastest 125cc racer who ever lived. He would’ve won the 125cc National Championship all three years he raced in it from 2002 to 2004, but he missed the first four rounds of the 2003 series after a huge crash at the Las Vegas Supercross destroyed half of his upper body. Still, even in 2003 – a year with only 11 MX Nationals, because the Troy, Ohio, round was canceled due to being turned into a lake – Stewart only finished 30 points behind eventual champion Grant Langston. He raced 7 out of 11 races and finished only 30 points back. Think about that. He won every moto in those 7 events. Once Stewart moved up to the 250/450cc class, he had to deal with one Ricky Carmichael, and that just wasn’t going to be easy, was it? What happens when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object? Well, Carmichael got the best of Stewart more often than not. In 2008, after sitting out most of the supercross series with a wrist injury, Stewart went out and won 24 out of 24 motos in the 450cc National MX Championship before switching to a supercross-only deal with Yamaha. When he was healthy, only really one guy could stop him, and even that guy couldn’t do it every time. Even without the perfect 450cc season, Stewart would’ve made this list just for what he did on that KX125.
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