Malcolm Stewart Interview
May 03, 2024
How would you say your year has gone so far? It has been a bit up and down, but you’re also rebounding from an injury last year.
It's definitely been a rollercoaster, I would say. I mean, is it expectations that I walked in going into Anaheim 1 thinking how the year was gonna be? Absolutely not, but this is racing, this is what we signed up for. That's what I love about racing. You never know how the race is gonna be and all it takes is one race to change that attitude and everything like that. I feel like for me, I've been having a pretty positive attitude going through the whole year. We haven't really been up where we needed to be, but I think sometimes you just gotta crawl before you walk and just enjoy the season as it goes. We still got a whole outdoor season and some SMX rounds to change all this. So for me, I just look at it from, people say, oh, it's just a rebuild year. Yeah, you can look at it as that, but don't, I mean, I'm not gonna see here and say at least people are, everybody's fast, everybody's going really good. I mean, the boys are going good right now, so, and you already know when you're on you're on, you're off you're off. And it can change in a heartbeat in one race. So we just need to enjoy it, have fun, keep the same spirit going, and just keep racing hard and take it race by race. Don't overthink it, slow it down a little bit. And sometimes when you overthink expectations you can actually dig yourself in a hole.Do you feel like your speed is the same as it was coming into last year and all these guys with a full year on the bike have elevated it more? Or is there still some aspect of recovering after so much time off and working your way back up to race speed?
I just think from an athlete's perspective, not just motorsports, when you see an athlete get hurt and miss a whole year, whether it's basketball, football, hockey, whatever, he doesn't really bounce back the way he should have. Sometimes it takes him a few games to a year to whatever, and I feel like I'm one of those athletes that is just taking his time. But I will say one thing that hasn't changed is the mindset to win. Right? And there's a reason why I do this, not only because I get paid to do it, it's just because I have fun doing it and I enjoy it and I love being in front of the fans. So for me, you gotta think of the positives instead of when you're getting pounded to the ground; think about why you're here and why you're doing it and, and just enjoy it. And as I said, we got a whole season about to start. We're gonna end this race on the good note, then we're gonna go to Salt Lake and end that on a good note, and then we've got a whole new season of outdoors; 11 races, 22 motos, followed by the three SMX rounds. You gotta just look forward to it and just keep moving forward and don't let anything from the past hurt you.When was the last time you were healthy entering a full season of 450 motocross? I feel like it has been a while.
Yeah, probably since 2013/2014, I had a really good season and I got injured at the end. It's a long season, it’s a lot of races. And to stay healthy all year long, even just in Supercross alone is a lot. And that's part of the game, right? I mean, it's no different in any other sport. Baseball, hockey, football, I mean, we are here to do everything we can as athletes and every athlete battles through some type of injury. Whether if you publicize it or not, we're all injured in some type of way. But at the end of the day, we're here to have fun, enjoy it and race hard and give the fans a show.So excited about outdoors then?
Yeah, it’s about continuously racing, getting more races under your belt and enjoying it. It's one of those years; we're not having the best year, but I could be sitting on the couch, right? So that's a great way to look at it. I could be sitting on the couch where I was last year and I wasn't in a good spot last year. So out here racing, yes, the results aren't the way you want it, but at least we're out here in front of our fans.
