MOTOR RACING OFF-ROAD AT ANAHEIM : Stewart Holds Off Evans as Truck Gets Job Done

Off-road racer Ivan Stewart will get a new Toyota factory truck to compete in Mickey Thompson’s Off-Road Championship Gran Prix series in May for the Rose Bowl event, but in the meantime, his three-year-old vehicle seems to be holding up just fine.

Stewart, starting on the front row, overcame pole sitter Danny Thompson on the third lap and held off Walker Evans to the finish in winning the grand national pickup truck class Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 65,477 in Anaheim Stadium.

It was the largest crowd to attend an off-road race.

The victory was Stewart’s first in four years at Anaheim and launched Toyota toward its eighth consecutive manufacturers’ championship in the stadium racing series.

Evans, driving a Jeep, finished second and Stewart’s teammate, Jeff Huber was third. Thompson, in a Chevrolet, pulled off the course on the second lap with smoke bellowing out of his hood.

Robby Gordon, the series’ defending champion, crashed into the fence near the first-base dugout on the sixth lap. Gordon was making his debut in a Ford Ranger after winning the driver’s championship last year in a Toyota.

The course featured dual lanes for passing in the middle and was the center of controversy and some dangerous driving throughout the evening.

The opening truck heat had three restarts and five drivers flipped their vehicles before the eight-lap race could be completed. What’s more, two course volunteers were nearly hit by driver Rob MacCachren after eight drivers failed to observe a red flag.

“It was basically amateur hour in that race,” said Bill Marcel, president of the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group. “Everyone had forgotten their driving skills. We could have disqualified everyone.”

Huber criticized the course, blaming the inability to pass on the narrow lanes for the reckless driving in the heat race.

Frank Arciero Jr. won the 1600cc race for his 14th career main-event victory, the most ever in the series.