History Made: “When You're Feeling It, You Just Feel Really Good”

In Paris a couple months ago you and I are talking in the motorhome, and you tell me everything that happened for you 50 miles from here a couple of months ago. As I'm watching you out there tonight, that's all I could think about. So, to think about you being home, but then everything that's happened from here and you wanting to talk about at that moment here and how important that was, what this means for the city. Can you please explain for everyone now that you have your moment?
Malcolm Stewart: Yeah, I mean. You know, after Vegas [SMX finale] I was planning on taking some time off, maybe do some fishing and things like that, and then we had a hurricane come through and I'm sitting in feet of water, right? My whole house is destroyed and me and Roger Larson [of Seven gear] were sitting there and we were like every everybody's flooded, right? At that time, we had to help a bunch of people, you know, pulling people out of houses whatever it took, you know, because that's a real life situation for a lot of people, and I kept myself very busy. I think that's why I was losing weight because there was no source of food! [Laughs] But, no, it really is an emotional roller coaster and to pull all that out and leave all that behind me and just try to focus on the racing side of things, knowing that I have a bunch of friends and family that they were just sitting outside their house like, they have no house, right? And it's just a sad moment. At the same time that motivated me, right? Like to lose all that, hundreds of thousands of dollars just in my own personal, you know, stuff that I lost….at least I made some of that money back tonight! [Laughs] But again, just knowing that happened, that's why I ran “Florida Strong” on the back of my helmet because I want people to understand that I'm here, I feel you, I feel your pain, and you know, again, as we're all one big family, we're God's child. 

Could kind of take us through the mindset of when it seemed like instead of being hunted you became the hunter when you were behind Chase? What happened at that moment?
A lot of that has to do with Nate Ramsey [team manager]. He's always told me, “Dude, just be there.” Aldon [Baker, trainer] as well. If I could just figure out how to be there after halfway, and then, as a racer you see that person and you see those little mistakes, you feed off of that. I knew like Chase was kind of indecisive, like indecisive in the whoops, he was going to the right, he's going the middle, he's going left, and I was like this is my point. If I can just get through these whoops really fast, put that pressure on him, I know it can start probably getting into his mind and starting to think. Then I can start seeing him switch his lines up all over the racetrack. I'm like, this is the moment, right? I had that mindset, through the whoops, I was on the right-hand side. I'm like me and him are gonna go in this corner together and I'm gonna put pressure on him and then I started to see his front end wash and he went down unfortunately, but he was putting on a great race. You know that feeling when you're just feeling the track you just feel everything the whole bike is connected? I could feel that vibe and, as I said before, there's points in some of the corners where I couldn't even hear my motorcycle, right? Like I was probably in first gear and didn't even realize it, right? So, it's an awesome feeling.

Whenever you saw that opportunity coming up, how did you remain focused with the emotions and everything just all coming out. The fans were going crazy. Like how did you just remain calm?
Well, I can definitely say I had a lot of pressure for sure with the whole crowd. You need to do it in front of them, right? For some reason I just got down to that [start] line and I was like, “Dude, just let it go.” At the end of the day, if I know if I go out there and give it 110 percent, like let's just see where the cards fall, and Ramsey's been preaching that. After chapel services, we do a little thing in the truck. We do a little like just a little team get together and he just said, “Dude go out there, give everything you got, see where the cards fall,” and he's been preaching that to me. So, I'm like fine, “We're gonna let it go, see what we do, see where the cards fall.” When you're connected with the motorcycle, I feel like you're just unstoppable at that moment and having that feel of the track, that's just my moment, and this was the night like I just felt it. I was just that guy!

I guess to elaborate on that a little bit, you talk about feeling good all like all race, but those last like two laps when you realized that it's actually happening like how do you stay calm? Like were you feeling nervous at all?
Oh, I'd be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, dude! I was freaking out! [Laughs] What are you talking about? First win, hometown! Couldn’t you hear the motorcycle? What?! [Laughs] I remember it was like four laps to go, and I went around the mechanics’ area. I'm like, I'm not going to look at the pit board for two laps. Like I'm not going to look at it. I know where Coop's at. I'm just gonna wait. And then he gave me two laps to go. I'm like, all I know you do is just go around one more lap. It's home from here. I didn't really get nervous until the last lap, so like the last like little corner because I felt like the crowd like really like rose up. Doing it, again, in front of my hometown and family and friends and just everybody, it's a dream come true and no matter what happens from now, I'm in the history books.

Thinking back to when you won your 250 regional championship you've had to speed this whole time, ups and downs, injuries, lots of good results, obviously lots of upsets, but just kind of run us through what it felt like to finally accomplish that goal and check that box as being a 450 supercross winner.
It's again, man, I still feel like it's, like I'm running through the race of my mind, right? Like I can't believe I did it, right? Finally like the opportunity to like be in that moment and it's real. Like this is a real thing and it's hard to say like until you…I'll never forget like I won…this, how I feel right now, is how I won my very first 250 heat race win back in like 2013. That moment like I can't believe I just did it, right? And that's how I feel like a little kid like it's just a really, really awesome moment and just as I said before, like, I know my brother is so proud of me and my whole family is proud of me, and the whole team, everybody. It's been a long time coming, and we finally got it done and I appreciate it, everybody is stuck behind my back this time.

You talked about how important this win was and obviously it's very special, but you also hadn't been on the podium in a few years. Was there a point in the race where you thought kind of had to decide, let's take it easy and get the podium, or let's push forward and take a chance?
I just wanted to keep pushing forward. I just had so much momentum going and like I kind of felt like it was probably like. Maybe seven or eight minutes left and I kind of I kind of started seeing Chase kind of make some mistakes and I'm like, he's not pulling away like I'm actually catching him, right? And I'm like at this moment like I have so much momentum going and I knew in my heart, my strong spot was through the woops. Like I knew that I could make up if I hit the whoops just right, I can probably make up at least maybe a whole second, right? And I was just gaining on him, gaining on him, and I again, I could just start seeing him start switching his lines and he started, you know, unfortunately we all been there like started riding behind you, you know, because I could see him being defensive and there's nothing worse feeling like that when a guy's catching you later in the race like and you're trying to figure out what he's doing, right? And again, the crowd played in my favorite because I know he can hear it. I'm feeling it right and just, when I passed him I'm like, it's up to me like to bring this home, right? And I knew kind of where Cooper was at but I'm like, all right, I'm just gonna just take it lap by lap. Just look at your pit-board, just keep hitting these marks, hitting this, hitting this, and I had, of course, Nate Ramsey who's out there just cheering me on and again like when you're feeling it, you just feel really good.

Compared to the last few weeks, I would say tonight's track, at least from the outside, looked like a fairly basic layout. We didn't have a lot of big lines, and yet we saw a lot of carnage. Obviously you were able to thread the needle, but can you speak to me what it was about tonight's track that was so challenging for a lot of riders?
You know, I honestly think a lot of it was just because like last weekend we went from a high-pace track right like big, big quads and stuff like that, you know, and then we go over [to] like a really, really like slower technical track, you know. Even though the track was kind of simple, but it was actually very technical and that's why a lot of us were searching, trying to figure out lines and of course any time you put a long sand section like that, it was definitely gonna be tough. But it was one of those tracks that you know if you override you can just get yourself caught up in the moment and then next thing you know you're fighting everything, right? And I just kind of was just like, all right, like just being right here through the whoops, just like easy on your clutch, you know, with the sand just hitting your marks like and just hit it consistent. Because I kind of felt like that one thing that me and Nate Ramsey been working on is consistency, right? Like if I could just be able to hit or if it's 54s or 55s or whatever like. And just hit him like let's say we can if we can hit him 15 laps in a row, like that's how much further ahead we're gonna be and that's one of the things that I've been trying to work on myself, like I said, Nate Ramsey, Aldon Baker, and that I just connected the dots and that and that's kind of how, how it happened. And again, like having this, having that moment for me is, it's only motivating and I want more of it.