James Stewart has given his view on defending supercross champion, Cooper Webb, and his split with Aldon Baker – and he doesn’t think it will be the difference between Webb winning or losing the title. But Stewart goes with Tomac to end the year as champ! ( Get a confident Webb’s press conference quotes here).
Speaking in his latest Bubba’s World podcast, Stewart said: “With Cooper it’s different, we always talk about mentality. Past champions used to have just straight speed but it’s almost like he is an underdog in a sense. It’s about everything else with him, does he just go faster than everybody else? It’s not like that.
“As great as Aldon is, I don’t want this to sound like a knock on Aldon because it’s not, I don’t think Aldon will be the reason why Cooper wins or loses this year. I don’t think that’s the part that matters. The only benefit I would see is… Dungey retired, Villo retired, I went through it, when you get in that structure there is a part where Monday through Friday becomes so much work and you are almost tired coming into the weekend. To do that and be in the top level and expect to win, I think when you are that guy and everybody expects you to win, the team, Aldon – it’s a lot of pressure. Maybe the freedom to be his own person could help him, that would be the only part I could see could help.
“With Cooper it’s upstairs, it depends on how that mind is. He might win in spite of it. When Cooper went to Aldon it benefited him. Aldon has definitely benefitted him.”
For more on Stewart’s view Webb plus Tomac, Roczen, Ferrandis and more riders as the new season approaches, including his top 5 prediction, plus the time Roger DeCoster secretly met with James to discuss signing him, listen below:
Image: Cudby
Gatedrop Podcast! Jonathan McCready and Andy McKinstry preview the 2022 AMA supercross series, with lots of team changes and a younger generation hungry to take down the usual title contenders of Cooper Webb, Eli Tomac and Ken a Roczen, there is a lot to discuss! Listen here on iTunes or Spotify and YouTube below:
Get your 2022 AMA Supercross video pass here.