Malcolm Stewart explained how his painful crash during practice in Birmingham, that left him finding it hard to walk in between motos, may have actually helped his race performance that saw Stewart get back on the podium for the first time sinch his Tampa win!
Mental expectation inverted by a crash turned into relaxation and freedom to perform via gritted teeth, that enabled the speed and result to shine in line with Stewart’s potential.
Malcolm said in the press conference:
“I kind of felt like I rode so well in Tampa and then I’m like kind of finding myself not even getting top five, it was hard to fight for that,” he said. “That just goes to show you how this field can change, right? One start or anything like that, everyone is riding so phenomenal. Everybody has got their suspension, and everything dialled so as the season kind of goes on, it just gets tricky. So yeah, I kind of felt like I lit a little bit of a flat spot, and I don’t know maybe that crash during the day with Justin Hill just kind of loosened me up a little bit.
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“I just felt really good, connected with the whole track, said Stewart on his speed. “My team manager Nate Ramsey, he was like, ‘Dude you look so well, just go out there and give it everything you got and let’s see where the cards fall.’ Here we are, on the podium!
“As soon as I would get off the bike it was hurting quite a bit,” he admitted. “Just hit my hip pretty good and just gave myself a nice little Charlie horse. We did everything we could. Dr. G helped me out, but it’s racing. I got a job to do and just put my head down and just tough it up and I can cry later!”
“Sometimes, I think it goes back to the old saying that riders ride their best whenever they go down in the first turn and stuff like that, like they’re loose. I don’t know why. All I had to do was go out there and do the best I could, right? It did hurt, but I think that kind of helped me out because I wasn’t too worried about anything else but that. Sometimes it’s just kind of a mental thing. Again, at the end of the day we did everything we could, and we got on the box., I’m hurting now, but it felt good.”
Stewart won’t want to be riding in pain again this weekend, but maybe it helped unlock the self-belief that he can do it again, this time pain-free.
