Ivan Stewart Shifting Gears from Off-Road Racing to Electric Bikes

You know the times are changing when Baja racing legend Ivan Stewart is getting out of the off-road racing business to open an electric bicycle store in San Diego

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You know the times are changing when Baja racing legend Ivan "Ironman" Stewart is getting out of the off-road racing business to open an electric bicycle store in San Diego, according to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

“I’m simplifying my life,” Stewart said. “I’m changing to something more suited to what I want to be. I still want to be connected to off-road racing. I’ll still be at some of my favorite races. But not every day.”

Stewart won the Baja 500 17 times and was the only driver to earn both the SCORE and Unlimited Class series championships in the same year. He was inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006.

In 1983, Stewart started a long-running affiliation and partnership with Toyota, racing its trucks off-road. That relationship also led to limited-edition versions of the Toyota Tundra that were built and sold by Toyota (first-generation Tundra) and accessorized by Stewart directly (second-generation Tundra).

As Stewart prepares to shift gears and his attention to his newly opened electric bike shop, he’ll be auctioning off some of his most famous memorabilia, including his famous Toyota-powered Mickey Thompson stadium truck that led to the successful "Ivan Ironman Stewart's Super Off Road" video game series in the 1980s.

We’ve had the opportunity to meet Ivan and go for a drive in one of his supercharged Tundras. The man is class act, and we wish him all the best in his new endeavors.

Too bad he's affiliated with Toyota (driving "one of his supercharged Tundras"). It'd be fun to do some desert runs with him driving a FORD RAPTOR! :mrgreen:

Maybe he'll take a stock Tundra out and we'll take our stock Raptors and then we'll see...

I suspect he'd thrash the Tundra driving like "Ivan Ironman Stewart" just to show us his taillights no matter what it does to that stock Tundra.

I think the first time I met Ivan was in the early 1980's and he was definitely driving a Ford Truck. It was yellow or bright orange IIRC... could be wrong about the color.

Soon after, Toyota hired him and the rest is history!

P.S. Back in the early days I saw one of the "Toyota" prerunners-prototypes... The race trucks were Toyota powered but this prerunner definitely was powered by Ford. :thumbsup: