I was so excited when I heard that a fan ran on the track in front of Stewart that I actually had to remind myself to breathe again. I’m not sure any bit of news has ever been so ripe with potential. There was so much going on in my head that I was getting a little dizzy. More so questions than anything. Who was the guy? Why didn’t they red flag the moto? How much did Dungey pay him? Was it the cop he pulled over getting revenge?
But then I saw the footage, and my excitement was shoved aside by extreme disappointment. I was literally picturing a guy running in front of James, probably in a KTM trench coat, and just doing a Superman pose in the middle of the track. Seeing some dude run across the track miles away from James or his line was not what I was hoping to see. I mean, come on BRO. Distraction or not, the guy wasn’t even close. I very rarely agree with the minds of the baby boomer generation when it comes to matters of moto, but this is one of those times when I wish I could say “Back in my day, we had people crossing the track in 8 different directions every damn lap, and we thanked each and every one of them who didn’t throw broken beer bottles at us.” I heard a few people saying the guy was standing in his line, but watch the footage, James was heading straight for the line he hit. No way he was making it to the inside with all those ruts. Fact is, James fell and saw the opportunity to use a scapegoat. I don’t blame him at all; this is America – where “that guy” is always fucking up our perfect record of never doing anything wrong. I mean, I have literally never had a crash that was my fault. True story.
Am I saying the guy is not an idiot? Nope. I mean, it’s like two laps into the race, the pack is still pretty condensed, which means there is plenty of time when the course is clear, and you decide to cross the track when the leaders are coming around? The man is obviously short bus material. He probably has no idea that he did anything wrong, like a pedophile who gets caught masturbating in the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese. But to entirely blame James’ crash on him is fucking stupid.
Here’s another vid of the whole shebang:
