Image: Simon Cudby.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart pushed through exhausting illness to move into second place in the Monster Energy Supercross standings last weekend in Houston after salvaging fifth in the main event.

Although Stewart had been flying high from winning the last three rounds and capturing his 50th career Supercross victory, he came into the Texas round with a stomach bug that would ultimately plague his performance.

“This has been a rough week for me,” he explained. “I just had some kind of stomach bug and I’ve been feeling pretty weak. I felt good enough to travel to Houston, but I started feeling worse as the day went on.

“I rode the first untimed practice and the second timed session, but I was only able to ride two laps because I was feeling so bad.”

After spending as much time recuperating as possible, Stewart came out for his heat race and managed to take the win. Again retiring directly to the pits to recover, Stewart’s priority was to save his strength for the 20-lap final.

“In the heat race, I got a decent start and was able to pass for the lead but by the second lap, I was just done,” Stewart added. “I had no energy, I felt really weak and I made a few mistakes, but I was able to win.

“Afterwards, I went back to the pits to try to recover and we were debating whether it was safe to go out and race the main. I wanted to, so I went out and got an okay start and made my way up to fifth and just salvaged everything I could.

“I’m happy with fifth, considering how I’m feeling. And I’m really happy about moving up to second in the points. Now I just want to get healthy and come back next weekend. We have three races left and I want to go out and get three wins. I still feel good as far as riding goes, I just have to get healthy now.”

Stewart now sits 45 points in arrears of defending champion Ryan Villopoto, who claimed his fourth race win of the season in Houston.