Image: Octopi Media

Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Malcolm Stewart bounced back from two tough races to cap off the Indianapolis residency with a season-best fourth place finish.

Stewart started off the year with a run of impressive finishes in Houston, including a fifth-place result to kick off his 2021 campaign.

But when the series arrived in Indy, he slipped down the results sheet with an 11th and a 10th at the first two rounds inside Lucas Oil Stadium. While things looked to be trending downward on paper, Stewart kept pushing, acknowledging his recent struggle and knowing he needed to grab a good result in the final main event in Indy.

“We just struggled a little bit in the first two [ Indy rounds],” Stewart admitted. “In the main event, I told myself, ‘bro, you have got to get a top five in this thing no matter what, because the boss man isn’t going to be happy – I might be finding myself doing it on my own if I don’t put the results in’.”

The 10th year pro is taking an experienced approach to his recent results, knowing it’s all a part of it and working to find positives in the struggle.

“We put a lot of work into this,” he continued. “It sucks if you don’t get the results you want, but that’s part of racing. You live, you learn and you keep moving forward. I definitely learned a lot, we’re going to keep working and do our homework.”

“The team has never given up [and] I feel like every race we’re learning. I’m very thankful that I’ve got a great team with me… so far, the changes that we’ve made have gone in the right direction. We’ll be going for it in Orlando, my hometown race back in Florida – let’s just go have some fun.”

Entering his home rounds on the Monster Energy Supercross schedule, Stewart is seventh in the 450SX standings and only a single point behind teammate Dylan Ferrandis, the premier class rookie directly ahead in sixth position.