James Stewart’s return to racing was short lived after the Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing rider pulled out of the Oakland SX Main Event on lap nine with complaints of blurred vision.
It is clear that the concussion Stewart suffered at Anaheim 1 is still giving the Suzuki rider on-going problems and further testing will be required to evaluate his condition.
Stewart qualified straight into the Main with an excellent second-place performance in his heat race, which he led until the final lap. Baggett ran near the front in his heat before coming up short on a rhythm section and crashing hard. He rebounded and made the Main by way of a fourth-place in his semi.
In the Main Stewart got a solid jump and ran third early on. He looked good for about the first five laps before his lap times began dropping, with something obviously wrong. By lap eight he fell to seventh and then a lap later pulled off reporting blurred vision.
“James came in feeling he was good to go,” said Yoshimura Suzuki Team Manager Mike Webb. “He rode three days this week and put in a lot of laps. He was riding well and looked more like the old James. He was solid all day and did well in his heat although didn’t feel 100 percent. He got a great start in the Main but after a couple laps he started to struggle with blurred vision and by lap nine he pulled off. He’s going to get some tests done early this week and we’ll see where we are then.”