James Stewart welcomes the challenge from Ryan Dungey. Image: Simon Cudby.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart is enjoying his new-found rivalry with Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey on return to the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship in 2012.

This year marks Stewart’s first full-time outdoor season since he swept the series in 2008, the former champion back in form and is relishing in the competition.

Stewart and Dungey have been inseparable throughout all four motos this year. Victory has gone to Stewart at both Hangtown and Freestone, but ‘The Dunge’ is keeping the new Suzuki recruit honest the whole way.

At Freestone on Saturday, Dungey shadowed Stewart throughout the weekend, but was never able to make a pass stick.

“I knew he was behind me the whole way, you know when you kind of expect it, it’s not really a big deal,” Stewart said. “I knew he was going to be tough and he rode good here last year.

“Coming into it I knew it was one of his favourite tracks – it might be his favourite track beside Milville. So obviously after what happened last weekend, I knew he was going to come out strong. It was good to get a win.

“He was actually in front of me a couple of times, but I was able to get it back, so it was all good.”

Stewart’s wins to date have been satisfying following his late signing with Suzuki, but he’s still got his sights firmly set on next year’s supercross series.

“Having this competition makes me better, obviously that was one of the reasons I came out here,” he explained. “For sure some weekends you win and some weekends you lose, but at the end of the day I’m building for the right goals and that’s next year’s supercross series.”

Stewart leads Dungey by 14 points in the overall 450 Class standings as the series heads to Colorado for round three on 2 June.