He Can’t Resist the Lure of This Open Road : Cycling: Former Air Force pilot Davis, 62, will ride from Orange County to Georgia with three teammates in annual Race Across America.

Simply put, cyclist Jim Davis is 62-years young.

Although some men his age contemplate retirement, Davis, who works for TRW, isn’t interested in slowing down. He is too busy training, trying to figure out how he and his three teammates can complete the 3,000-mile Race Across America in roughly seven days.

Finishing this race is an amazing feat in itself, but the RAAM is old hat for Davis. He finished the race as part of an eight-rider team in 1992.

The 13th annual RAAM begins today from the Holiday Inn in Irvine, with the solo riders and tandem teams starting at 9 a.m.

Sunday at 9 a.m., Davis and three of his friends will start with the other four-rider teams, beginning a 2,905-mile journey that will take them through Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, before finishing in Savannah, Ga. Finishers should begin to arrive in Savannah on Aug. 6.

Grueling as RAAM is for the cyclists, the race is not as formidable as it would appear for Davis.

He enjoys testing his physical and mental limits, and an 18-year career in the Air Force from 1955-73, including missions in Southeast Asia, keeps the race in perspective.

In other words, riding a bicycle past a sleeping rattlesnake in the middle of the desert is nothing compared to flying an F-86 during wartime.

“Really, the race is not as difficult as it sounds,” Davis said. “It does closely simulate some survival situations you might see in the military. The biggest part of the race is what you do off the bike.

“There’s that special feeling you get in a team environment; the feeling that you won’t ever get it done just by yourself.”

Davis’ team is the SCOR Antiques, and they will compete in the masters (age 60 and older) division.

“The name is perfect,” Davis said. “You know, we’re something valuable, yet old.”

SCOR, which stands for Specialized Coronary Outpatient Rehabilitation, brought together Davis of Huntington Beach and teammates Chuck Hanson of Bellflower, Jewett Pattee of Long Beach and Bill Rider of San Dimas.

Although Davis hasn’t had any heart problems, he had a high cholesterol level, hypertension, and was 40 pounds overweight when he hooked up with SCOR.

“I saw them when they were riding at one of the Solvang Century races, a 100-mile ride held every March,” Davis said. “Then I saw them in a local race in Huntington Beach and slowly got involved. We all ride together Saturday mornings in Long Beach.”

Hanson, 64, is the leader of the group. He will be riding in his second RAAM, just six years after undergoing double bypass surgery.

“Just to finish that race was a great experience,” Hanson said. “For this year’s race, we finally found four people who were willing to try it and we just wanted to see how we could do.”

Pattee, 70, whom Davis calls the “old man” of the group, and Rider, “the youngster” (he turns 60 in August), round out the Antiques.

“It’s funny,” Davis said, “but some of the guys are already worrying about ‘What if the weather is really hot or if it’s rainy?’

“The way I look at it, no one tells you what your day is going to be like when you wake up in the morning. Things come up, you make adjustments . . . you deal with it.”

Davis has a gift for simplifying matters.

For example:

--After finding out this year’s route would take them through Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado which reaches altitudes near 11,000 feet, there were grumblings about how the team would approach that difficult leg of the journey.

Said Davis: “Why worry about it? When you’re on the bike, you shouldn’t be concerned about where you are. Just ride for an hour or so and then your shift is over.

“So I joked with them, ‘I just won’t ride that part of the race.’ ”

--Davis’ description of RAAM:

“You have two to three days where you’re getting used to the whole cycle of riding, resting, sleeping and eating on the road. Then you have two to three days where you’re in the groove and feeling pretty good.

“Then the last two days, well, let’s just say you aren’t taking pictures of us.”

Like any other RAAM rider, Davis had problems describing why he would want to cycle 3,000 miles in one week.

“I don’t know, it’s like climbing the mountain that’s there,” Davis said. “It’s a 3,000-mile challenge and I want to see what I can do.”

That attitude inadvertently helped Davis qualify for the cycling time trials event at the 1993 Senior Olympics.

“In June two years ago, I heard about these qualifying trials for the Senior Olympics down in San Diego,” Davis said. “I thought I’d just go down and watch.

“Then I thought, ‘What the heck, maybe I ought to ride in it?’ So I sent in an application and entered, raced with an old bike of mine, and actually qualified for the Senior Olympics.”

Although Davis didn’t fare well at the Senior Olympics in Baton Rouge, La., he won’t forget his experience.

“There I saw a 92-year-old man running in the 200 meters,” Davis said. “I don’t think you can define people by their chronological age. Seeing that man compete, that was what it was all about for me.”

So does Davis have anyone telling him he should act his age and start doing grandfatherly things?

“I don’t know anyone like that,” Davis said, laughing. “Man, this is Southern California. I left all of that back in Hackensack, N.J.”

Still, Davis said he’s not sure how his wife of 37 years, Glennor, and their four children feel about his cycling passion.

“I never really thought about if she liked or disliked it,” Davis said. “I guess with me having been a pilot with the Air Force and always putting the family on the go, they all just look at it and say, ‘Well, there he goes again.’ ”