James Stewart Jr., aka “Bubba,” has announced his retirement.
We haven’t talked about him often in CMG due to our focus on street-legal bikes, but Stewart was one of the biggest stars in offroad racing history. He tore up AMA’s Supercross and outdoor MX series in the early 2000s, proving particularly dominant in the small-capacity classes, but also winning his fair share of hardware in the 250/450 class as well.
He’s second all-time in Supercross premier class wins, with 50 firsts. He won 20 250/450 AMA Pro Motocross races, and has 28 wins in the 125/250 class. Those wins translated to two Supercross titles, and three AMA Pro Motocross titles, including 2008’s undefeated season.
To put it all in perspective, only Jeremy McGrath has more wins in the Supercross premier class, and beside Stewart, only Ricky Carmichael has accomplished an undefeated AMA Pro Motocross season (Carmichael did it twice).
Stewart also won twice at Red Bull Straight Rhythm, and has an X Games medal.
The news doesn’t come as a shocker, as Stewart hadn’t raced professionally since 2016. He’d run into injury trouble in the later years of his career, as well as an FIM doping suspension (over a medically-prescribed substance that Stewart hadn’t gotten an exemption for). Stewart made an absolute truckload of sponsorship money during his heyday, and assuming he’s managed to hang on to it, it makes sense that now he wants to just relax and spend it.
Yup. He changed the sport forever. If you can’t scrub, you’re not going anywhere near the top.
This video sums up exactly how hard it is.
https://youtu.be/1lLW4Vyyr1g
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Massive respect. That’s friggin’ riding.