When he is racing his dirt bike, Jim Stewart might turn heads when he executes a tricky double jump or negotiates a sharp corner.
But it's when he's off his yellow Suzuki 440, with his helmet under an arm and his full head of silver hair exposed, that people really take notice.
"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.
Still.
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.
Senior vets are racers over 50, and even in a sport associated with riders in their teens and 20s, Stewart has plenty of company in the category, which has about a dozen competitors.
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."
Has he ever. He's seen four-stroke machines replace two-stroke ones, making for a smoother ride and less gear-shifting. He's seen girls and women infiltrate the sport. He's seen the entire track culture change as kids began to dominate the sport and their parents came with them to help and watch, turning pit areas into family rooms.
"When I first started, I worked out of the back of a little Toyota pickup truck. One of the guys threw his tools in a backpack, put a gas can on his lap, and rode his bike to the park," Stewart said. "Now it's a sea of motor homes and trailers. It's a different culture."
HOOKED FROM THE START
Motocross wasn't the avocation Stewart's dad had in mind for him.
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.
"Every day I'd watch the ditch trails to watch the snow disappear," he said. "That's all we waited for -- a patch of dirt to show up."
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.
Then he joined the Anchorage Fire Department, got married and started a family. By 1990, Stewart was a more sporadic presence on the trails, although he always raced at least once a summer.
Five years ago, with his two daughters getting older, Stewart began racing more. These days he makes it to about 10 races a year.
"I'm not concerned about winning, but I want to win at least one race so I have a win in every decade," he said. "I don't anticipate going after any championships, but each year since 2005, I've been getting a little faster than the previous year."
CONCESSIONS TO AGE
Stewart works as an engineer for the downtown fire station, where he drives the fire engine and operates the pumps.
"There's no doubt in my mind that racing dirt bikes all these years makes me far more capable in my job," Stewart said. "All my mechanical skills apply here. I can explain to a mechanic what's going on."
And when he's driving the fire engine, his racing skills come in handy. Whether he's racing to a burning building or racing laps at Kincaid, "you've gotta make split-second decisions that have serious ramifications," he said.
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.
They're kidding, but they make a point.
When it comes to motocross, 50 isn't the new 30 or even the new 40. And Stewart doesn't try to fool himself into thinking that it is.
"There's no question at 50 my reaction time isn't what it was when I was younger," he said.
Nor is his fearlessness. Back in the day Stewart never had trouble testing the limits of his bike and his body, which is perhaps why he broke a shoulder in 1993 and why he's had three knee surgeries, two of which were a direct result of racing. These days, though, his fearlessness is tempered somewhat by survival instincts.
"The ability to bring yourself to push limits is deduced dramatically as you get older," Stewart said.
So he tries to be smart, not just fast. He says he can still keep up with the young and fast crowd for a lap -- which lasts about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes -- but he can't do it for the entire 20 minutes or so of a race. Instead he picks and chooses places where he will push himself and the places where he will hold back.
"When you're young, you think you've gotta go as fast as you can all the time," Stewart said, noting that that's why he spent so many summers of his youth in a cast. "If you're going to continue to race years and years, you go as slow as you can and still accomplish your goal. Save the body and save the bike, even though the natural urge is to do the other thing.
"At this point in life, I can't go flat out and push it hard all the time. I can race with most of them for maybe a lap and then common sense kicks in, or I get sideways off a jump, and I say, 'OK, time to pull back.' "
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.
Another senior vet racer, Pat Poland, has provided inspiration. Poland is almost 60 and still learning, which makes Stewart think he still has another 10 years to race and learn new things.
"I'm still continuing to break bad habits," Stewart said. "My hope is to keep doing this as long as I'm physically able. I always tell myself if I ever break a femur, I'm done."
Daily News sports editor Beth Bragg can be reached at bbragg@adn.com or 257-4335.
Alaska's best riders
Jim Stewart's 35 years in motocross makes him a walking encyclopedia. Here's his take on some of the best racers the state has ever seen:
• Ben Lamay, a young Anchorage racer who is pursuing a pro career in the Lower 48: "There's no debating any longer who's the fastest rider in Alaska. He's head and shoulder ahead of everyone."
• Bruce Lockwood, one of the state's first motocross racers and Stewart's motocross role model. Stewart was a kid in Juneau when he first saw Lockwood race. "I'd rather watch him ride a dirt bike than anything else. He went about his work very professionally. He's in his late 50s and he's still winning races in California. He's a magician on the bike."
• Jim McClain, the winningest racer in Alaska who is 47 and owns 35 state titles. "Five or six is considered elite. Scott Davis (now a top Iron Dog snowmachine racer) had about 17. He won his first state championships in 1987 and at age 41 he won the 250 expert class, the highest class. He's some kind of genetic mutant."
• Sarah Herrin, a Class 3A Player of the Year for Nikiski in basketball and a demon on a dirt bike. "She might be in the top 10 in the state as far as speed goes. She must be the fastest woman on the planet. I predict right now she'll win a national championship."
• Wayne Broste, Stewart's archrival back in the '70s and '80s. "When I knew he was gonna be at a race, I'd be throwing up because he was the one guy who could out-gut me. Mine were nerves of iron but his were nerves of steel."
By BETH BRAGG
bbragg@adn.com