Image: Simon Cudby.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart bounced back from several races of bad luck to create his own good fortune at round 11 of the 2014 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship at Ford Field in Detroit on Saturday night.

Stewart raced his RM-Z450 to his 48th 450 class win and tied former Suzuki rider, Ricky Carmichael, for second place on the all-time 450 class wins list. This victory also moved Stewart back into third in the overall series points.

This weekend’s race marked the series’ return to Detroit for the first time since 2008. Stewart, having won there in ’06 and ’07, was blisteringly-fast on his Yoshimura Suzuki RM-Z450 all day. He qualified second and went on to take his seventh heat race win of the season.

In the 20-lap final, Stewart got a good launch off the gate and took over the lead at the end of the second lap. From there, the Yoshimura Suzuki rider turned-in consistently smooth laps to gap the field and take his third win of the season and his third win in Detroit.

“I had a great night,” said Stewart. “I was able to get a victory and we didn’t have any weird situations. This is the first time we haven’t been down on the first lap in three races and it feels good.

“I really felt like we got better and better all day, and then in the main event, we really nailed it. I’ve got to thank the Yoshimura Suzuki team, they’ve been solid and behind me the whole time, and it’s been a rough couple of weeks.

“It was great to tie a legend like Ricky Carmichael for second on the all-time wins list and now we’ll come back for Toronto and see what we can do up there.”

Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s next event is at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada, next this weekend.