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Stewart I believe was both gear along with them demanding to be on a full factory team. I could be wrong but I think he leveraged Honda's offer to get on the full factory team where he could have his own gear deal maybe in their mind better access to custom parts.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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But thinking back. James was solo and secluded on his own team to do his own thing. I wonder if he would have had the same untouchable success if he had to deal with a multi rider team like PC. I honestly think PC tent would have cost him some consistency. He clearly made the right choice and in a sense did it his own way. Not going PC is one of the things I like most about JS career. At the time it seemed like he was arrogant and thought he was to good to go the PC route. In reality, he really was to good and went right where he should have.
JS would of been successful on any 125 team. I also think he should of rode for Mitch..
I wonder how his career would of looked had he gone to Honda? He would of had a 450 in 2005 which would of helped a lot !
Mitch would’ve given great guidance and advice and James might’ve turned out a bit different. If someone like Mitch would’ve calmed him down and put discipline into his life and helped him understand the big picture, then maybe things would’ve been different.
He was 5 crashes away from 4 more titles. Imagine how much different the record books would look if he was a step or two calmer and understood that a podium is as good as a win some nights.
I wouldn’t call it strong arming, he told Mitch what he was doing. His contract wasn’t with Mitch, it was with Kawasaki
Championship bikes are usually kept and some riders have it written in their contracts that they keep championship bikes.
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I'm just a fan looking in but my perspective is the way they worked with riders changed around the time of Matt Walker.
I feel the same about James. Sometimes straight to the factory is good sometimes not. I just feel like mitch was and still is better equipped to handle new raw fast talent then most factory teams. By the time riders move up to the facory level they have worked with a group of people that only build thier success off refining young raw talent. Unlike the factory teams who normally have riders that have 2-5 years as a professional racers with a program that works for them already in place. They don't have to build just refine what's built already.
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