When he is racing his dirt bike, Jim Stewart might turn heads when he executes a tricky double jump or negotiates a sharp corner.
“I’m out there with kids 16 years old and they say, ‘Dude, what are you doing out here?’‘’ Stewart said. “I had the helmet off once and there was a young girl and she just looked at me and said, ‘Are you racing out there?’‘’
The answer is yes. Fifty-year-old Jim Stewart is racing out there.
A week ago at the Kincaid Park motocross course, several days after his birthday, Stewart made his debut in the Anchorage Racing Lions’ senior vets class.
What makes Stewart stand out is his longevity. He’s been at the Kincaid track since there’s been a Kincaid track. He started racing in Anchorage in 1974, when he was 14, and he won his first race at Kincaid the next year.
He has competed in at least one race every summer since then—the longest consecutive-year streak by an Anchorage racer—and he is the first Kincaid racer to start motocross racing as a teen and stay with it long enough to graduate to the senior vet class.
“I don’t think of myself as anything remarkable,” Stewart said. “It’s just that I’ve seen it all.”
Hooked From The Start
Before moving to Anchorage, the family lived in Juneau, where Stewart’s dad worked for the Department of Fish and Game.
“He wanted me to fish and hunt and fly airplanes,” Stewart said.
But ever since the day Stewart watched a dirt bike race in Juneau, he was hooked. He raced for the first time when he was 11, on a mini-bike. “I showed up in sneakers, jeans and a football helmet,” he said.
When the family moved to Anchorage, it found a home near Sand Lake, where Stewart discovered gravel pits and endless other places perfect for climbing and jumping. He remembers keeping his eyes glued to the window while riding the bus to Dimond High in the springtime, hoping to spy a place to ride.
From 1975 through 1985, Stewart was a constant at Kincaid, entering nearly every race. He won a state championship in 1978 and made a few trips Outside to test the racing scene there.
Concessions To Age
Stewart works as an engineer for the downtown fire station, where he drives the fire engine and operates the pumps.
The other guys at the station kid him a little for being a 50-year-old motocross racer. “Don’t break a hip,” they’ll say on the night before a race.
“There’s no question at 50 my reaction time isn’t what it was when I was younger,” he said.
In his senior vet debut last week, Stewart won the first moto and was leading the second when a tire went flat, pushing him into last place. He finished third overall and will return to the track today, chasing a victory in his new age class.
He continues to discover new things about the sport. He isn’t riding as fast as he used to, he said, but he’s riding better.
| 
|