Malcolm Stewart tends to attract attention wherever he goes, yet the opening round of 2020 Monster Energy Supercross was a quiet affair for him. A poor start in the main meant that he was out of a spotlight and had a lot of work to do to catch the top ten – that task was made trickier by the fact that the track made it difficult to pass. Mookie performed well though and pulled some solid points in. The positive and effective ride is discussed at length in this exclusive MX Vice interview.
It’s funny. Compare this to Anaheim 1 a year ago and it’s kind of completely different. Quiet, but a similar result. Only a two-point difference. Halfway through the main event I was suddenly like, “Oh, where is he?” Then you just moved up and up and up. Night was solid.
Yeah. I got off to a bad start.
Story of your life.
Yeah, dude. Really. Literally. I was like, “I can’t believe we are starting back here again for the opener. This is where we are starting?” I was like nineteenth. Halfway through the main I was like, “Man, what am I doing? Just sitting in twelfth place.” Then we started clicking away and I was like, “I guess we are in a main event! From here we just go home. Let’s just put it together.” I started clicking away and made a few passes. I ended up catching [Justin] Brayton, then Brayton looked back and he white-knuckled it. I was like, “Why you got to do me like that, Brayton?” I can’t really be mad.
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Sean Ogden
Only thing I have to really just focus on is getting a better start, and then my results will obviously be better. This race and this track, it was kind of like one of those tracks where everybody is going to follow the leader. You couldn’t really make too many passes. I worked so hard to catch JB and then he just went wide open. I expected that from him out of all the guys. He’s been here. He’s been here a while. He knows what it feels like, but the one thing that’s good about it is we have got sixteen more races to go.
For me it’s just get through them, take my time and step-by-step the results will come. I’m excited. I’m just happy to be back racing again. I just want to say, I took a good look. I was sitting in the main event. I looked in the stands and I was like, “Wow. I haven’t seen this since 2002.” The fans were here. It was cool. It was cool to see that many fans here and all the fans and stuff. I have a lot of fans that were rooting me on, so that was cool. I just want to say shout out to those guys and friends and family. Just want to thank everybody for coming out.
If you want some more positivity chucked your way, you were literally the only guy who made proper progress. Everyone else kind of started and then finished where they were. You were the only guy moving forward.
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. My head’s definitely not low. If you can start nineteenth or twentieth and make positions, you can’t be that mad. We are going to figure the starts out and go from there. Hopefully I can get a top-five start and end up winning one of these things.
It’s round one. Maybe this is a complete overreaction, but what have we got to do about the starts? What is the secret here? Is there something we are missing? Do you need two engines?
We are going to go back to the drawing board and figure it out.
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Sean Ogden
How many times have you been to the drawing board though?
I’ve been to the drawing board a lot, but I’m going back. We’ll figure it out. Don’t count me out. 27 going to be back on top.
What did you think of the track this weekend? I felt like it was a different A1. It wasn’t the simple A1 we typically get. Busy. I thought it was a good one until we got to the races and it was follow the leader.
Yeah. You already know the track was going to be pretty busy when there was only one triple. What do you expect though? That’s what A1 is all about. I think it kind of threw a curve ball for everybody. Nobody expected this to happen, for it to be this technical of a track. We are professional athletes though. This is what we do. We do this day in and day out. We are going to have to face opportunities. I can tell you this: It was a hell of a lot better than what it was at the opener last year. It was raining, so as far as I’m concerned this is a big plus.
Did you have any curveballs today? Anything pop up with bike set-up or anything like that, which kind of caught you off guard?
Oh, yeah. I was all over the place. I don’t know what you are talking about. 27 looked like a 72 for a second out there, but I didn’t hit the ground. Again, this is what opening… I was just planning to go out here and get a solid top ten. I will just build from here. That was the goal. Now I know I can run up better if I get a better start. We have got sixteen races to go. This is just the beginning.
Interview: Lewis Phillips | Lead Image: Sean Ogden
