OFF-ROAD RACING AT ANAHEIM : Stewart to Drive Against Stewart

Walker Evans, the grand old man of stadium truck racing at 52, will open defense of his Mickey Thompson Off-Road Gran Prix championship tonight at Anaheim Stadium with the son of his No. 1 rival as his new Dodge teammate.

Brian Stewart, 27, whose father Ivan has won three championships, will be in a second Dodge Dakota in hopes of helping Evans retain the manufacturers’ championship in the highly competitive Grand National truck class. Last season, Evans won his first individual title and, with Glenn Harris, brought Dodge its first manufacturers’ crown.

The elder Stewart, 46, will have veteran rallyist Rod Millen back as his Toyota teammate as the Japanese factory hopes to regain the title it won all previous eight years before Dodge won last season.

“I’ve watched Brian race in the desert, and he has shown me that he can handle himself very well in a big truck,” Evans said Friday during a day of qualifying on the artificial course laid out over 700 truckloads of dirt spread inside the baseball stadium. “I don’t see all the fuss about one driver racing against his dad, or racing against his son. Once you get a steering wheel in your hands and your foot on the throttle, you’re racing and it doesn’t matter who’s in another truck.”

Brian Stewart, who replaced Harris on Evans’ team, agreed with his new boss, saying, “It’s no big deal. It’s really us against the Toyotas, not me against my dad.’ ”

In another driving change, Greg George moved from Chevrolet to Ford as a member of Venable Racing’s Rough Rider team with Rob MacCachren.

“When I learned last season that Chevrolet wasn’t going to have two trucks for Danny (Thompson) this year, I jumped at the opportunity to drive a Ford Ranger when Jim Venable asked me to join his team,” George said. “I don’t know how I’ll do Saturday night because we just got our new truck Thursday, but I was amazed how close it was to being right on the mark.

“I know down the line it will be a very competitive truck because it’s patterned after Rob’s, and he won two races last year.”

George also will drive the Nature’s Recipe Briggsbuilt in defense of his series championship in superlights, another of the six classes. Also on tonight’s program, which will start at 7, are ultrastocks, super 1600s, four-wheel ATVs and ultracross motorcycles.

George has won main events in three classes and is the all-time leader in main-event victories with 18, but he is still looking for his first in a truck.

George’s most memorable race last year was in Dallas, where his Chevy clipped MacCachren’s Ford, sending his future teammate barrel-rolling down the track. MacCachren’s truck landed on its wheels, however, and he continued on and won the race.

Thompson, son of the late series founder, will be the lone Chevrolet driver tonight. The debut of former motocross champion Rick Johnson in another Chevy, owned and prepared by Jon Nelson, has been postponed at least until the San Diego race on Feb. 22.

Millen’s Toyota was fast qualifier Friday, bounding over 10 jumps and careening around eight corners in 39.497 seconds, slightly faster than MacCachren’s 39.767. Roger Mears, defending Anaheim race champion, was third in a Nissan at 40.100 seconds.