As He Nears 49, Still No Bend in the Ironman

Ivan Stewart, the ironman of Baja California off-road racing, won his first Baja 500 in 1974 while driving with Bill Hrynko. Since then, Stewart has won six more--including the last three--driving solo in all but one.

“I seem to thrive on the races in Mexico because they’re longer and rougher than the others,” Stewart said as he prepared to celebrate his 49th birthday Saturday with yet another run through Baja in his single-seat Toyota pickup truck.

Stewart, who lives near the Mexican border in Alpine, will be in the 465-mile SCORE/Tecate Trophy-Truck race, which will start in Ensenada and finish in Santo Tomas, 30 miles south of Ensenada.

Also Saturday will be the 26th running of the SCORE Baja 500 for all other classes. More than 200 entries are expected. They will start half an hour after the elite truck class and follow the same course.

This will be the fourth of seven races in the SCORE International desert series.

Stewart, the defending series champion, won the San Felipe 250 last February in Mexico, but still trails the Simon brothers, Paul and Dave, of Fallbrook, in the series standings. The Simons won both north-of-the-border races, the Parker 400 and Nevada 400, in their Ford pickup.

“I think one reason we’ve been so successful in Baja is that my Toyota was built to maneuver the tight and twisty courses we see in Mexico,” Stewart said of the high-tech model built by Cal Wells’ Precision Preparation Inc.

Last year, Stewart won both the Baja 500 and the Baja 1,000 en route to the series championship. In more than two decades of desert racing, Stewart has 11 Baja 500 class victories, two Baja 1,000s and 21 overall titles.

“I’ve been asked a lot recently about how much longer I expect to race,” he said. “As long as I’m still competitive and winning races, you’ll see me in the driver’s seat.”

Other serious challengers are Larry Ragland of Phoenix and Roger Mears of Bakersfield, in Chevrolets; Rob MacCachren of Las Vegas, in a Ford, and Walker Evans and Scott Douglas, both of Riverside, in Dodges. Making his Trophy-Truck debut in a Chevrolet will be Doug Fortin, 24, of Jamul, a second-generation off-road racing driver.

The course features 7,000 feet of elevation changes from sea level to the pine-covered mountains south of Tecate before returning to sea level near the Santo Tomas finish line.

Motor racing Notes

STOCK CARS--Saugus Speedway will run a NASCAR Winston Racing Series program Saturday night for sportsman, Grand Am modified and pro stock oval and Figure 8 cars. . . . Five drivers have won the first five races of the Featherlite Southwest Tour series, which will continue Saturday night at Las Vegas Raceway with the Hoosier/Parnelli Jones Tires 125.

SPRINT CARS--Wingless cars of the Sprint Car Racing Assn., rained out in their last scheduled outing at Ventura Raceway, will try again Saturday night on the tiny seaside oval. Ron Shuman is the SCRA points leader with 430 to 402 for Rip Williams and 355 for 17-year-old J.J. Yeley of Phoenix. . . . Also Saturday night, winged sprinters will be running in the Budweiser Golden State Challenge series at Santa Maria Speedway.

MOTOCROSS--Jeremy McGrath will be seeking his ninth Camel Supercross series victory of the season Saturday night at Spartan Stadium in San Jose when the series returns to California for the first time since February.

DRAG RACING--The Bakersfield Nostalgia & Nitro Nationals will be held this weekend at Bakersfield Raceway. Vintage cars through 1972 will compete Saturday, with muscle cars from all years running Sunday.

SPORTS CARS--The Porsche Owners Club will hold a three-day tribute to LeMans this weekend at Willow Springs Raceway. The charity event, open to any Porsche driver, will feature time trials and two 10-mile sprints Friday and Sunday, with a two-hour enduro Saturday at sunset.

AWARDS--Times photographer Jayne Kamin-Oncea won two first-place awards in the STP/American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Assn. writing and photography competition for 1993. Kamin-Oncea won in the “people” category for a picture of drag racing champion Eddie Hill and his wife, Ercie, and in the “action” category for her shot of Kenny Bernstein’s top-fuel dragster exploding during a race at Pomona. . . . Two former USC classmates, Deke Houlgate of Redondo Beach and Hank Ives of Orange, were named co-recipients of the James P. Chapman Award for “excellence in public relations during the 1993 PPG Cup Indy car season.” . . . Mark Smith received the Jigger Sirois Award for having the most frustrating month before the Indianapolis 500. Smith was bumped from the field for the second year in a row and crashed in a final attempt to bump his way back in.