Image: Octopi Media.

A knee dab on the opening lap of the second 450MX moto at Fox Raceway brought an early end to Malcolm Stewart’s afternoon, with the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing rider hopeful of lining up at Hangtown this weekend.

A challenging start to the Pro Motocross season-opener in Southern California saw Stewart qualify 20th, before capturing 12th in moto one against a stacked 450MX field.

After tweaking his knee on the opening lap of moto two, however, the 33-year-old was forced to withdraw from the race, leaving his status for this Saturday’s second round of the championship at Hangtown uncertain.

“Pala is always an interesting track,” Stewart commented. “Practice, I struggled a little bit, but I felt I had some good momentum going into moto one, and actually rode a pretty solid race. And then in moto two, the first lap, I dabbed my knee in a corner a little bit, which was frustrating.

“It’s nothing to be too concerned about – I pulled off for the rest of the race just to make sure that nothing was too crazy, and now we’ll re-evaluate and hopefully line up in Sacramento.”

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing teammate Daxton Bennick also provided an update on his condition after an early exit to 250MX moto two: “[I’m] thankful to be alright after my crash in the second moto, [I] had a solid day going. Hangtown up next.”

RJ Hampshire led the charge for the factory Husqvarna squad – which is scheduled to conclude operations at the end of the 2026 Monster Energy SMX World Championship – with a seventh-place finish in his return to competition.