Most Impressive: Tampa
February 11, 2025
Image from Feld Motor Sports, Inc.
Round 5 in Tampa! Who were the Most Impressive riders from each class?
450 Class: Malcolm Stewart
This one is easy right? Malcolm finally gets his first win! Insanely good ride for him… he was feeling the hype from the home town crowd for sure. He had the fastest lap time in the main, and was almost a full second faster than anyone else in the whoops alone… wow; as he said on the podium: “Stewart is back in the whoops”! A lot of “weird” or “unexpected” winners happen in mud races or in occasions where their main competitors fall / have bad luck. Not the case for Malcolm: he straight up was better than everyone in Tampa. Sure, Sexton fell while leading, but no doubt Malcolm would have passed him and won that race.
To make the moment even more epic, James Stewart was calling the race and he was able to chat with Malcolm on the podium (shivers going down everyone’s spine in that audience [and probably watching on TV too]). Malcolm addressed the hometown crowd cheering him on:
“Big bro, you know. You’ve done this a long time, racing Daytona and Jacksonville, and you know there’s something about that hometown crowd, buddy. I don’t know if they were twisting the throttle for me, because, for a split second, I was like, ‘Alright I need to get this done.’ ”
Afterwards in the press conference, we asked Malcom about the nerves during the closing laps:
”Oh, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, dude. I was freaking out. Whatcha talking about? First win? Hometown? Couldn't hear my motorcycle? What?Nah, I remember it was like four lops to go, and I went around the mechanics area. I'm like: I’m not gonna look at the pit board for two laps; I’m not gonna look at it, I don't care where it's at. I know where Coop's at, I’m just gonna wait. And then he gave me two laps to go. All I'm gonna do is just go around one lap, I'll see the white flag. It's home from there. I didn't really get nervous until the last lap, until like the last little corner because I felt like the crowd really rise. And you know, last time I had a feeling like that where the crowd was super loud was in Salt Lake City in 2022. So having that moment again and 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.”
Super impressive indeed… Congrats Malcolm!
250 Class: Cameron McAdoo
We’ve seen it all from McAdoo by now… looking like he died in Atlanta that one year only to line back up after the restart, grinding it out with his balls hanging out last year in Detroit, and now a podium with a torn ACL. McAdoo was vocal entering the weekend about how he was not 100%: he just injured it last week and was still in quite a bit of pain (was clearly limping around). However, he looked great every time he hit the track, and moved through the pack (passing his teammate Hammaker) to get this podium. If this is only 1 week out from the injury, I expect him to get even better moving forward.
Here’s what he had to say about the night:
“I am so grateful to have the strength to be here racing tonight. It was a difficult day and it has been difficult since the injury. I didn’t come in with any expectations, I wanted to go out and do my best. I am very happy with how tonight ended and how the team was able to manage everything. I got a lot of questions this weekend from people asking if I will be able to race, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I would be able to race.”
250 Class Honorable Mention: Cullin Park
Park missed all of last year’s supercross season after crashing out in the opening 250E round. Prior to that, he had several top 10s in 2023… so wasn’t sure what to expect from him. But wow, he matches his career best of 7th in such a stacked field! He straight up pulled away from factory riders Thrasher and Kitchen after the restart; he also was aggressive and took down Forkner. Overall, thoroughly impressed with his great start to the season.
