Age no obstacle to Ferry

James Stewart was 6 years old in 1991 when teammate Tim Ferry began riding Supercross motorcycles professionally.

"At 32, I'm not old," Ferry said. "But I'm one of the oldest guys out here."

Only two riders in the young man's sport will be older than Ferry when the AMA Supercross season ends tonight at Sam Boyd Stadium.

It has been the best Supercross season for Monster Kawasaki team riders Stewart and Ferry.

Stewart, 21, enters the 7 p.m. event as Supercross champion for the first time in his young career. Ferry, 32, is locked into third, the best season finish of his 16-year career.

They couldn't be happier for each other, and themselves.

When Stewart turned pro five years ago, he was flagged as the next Jeremy McGrath or Ricky Carmichael.

He has been courted by every major motorcycle manufacturer to ride its bike and basically could have written his own contract in the sport.

Ferry, on the other hand, was thrilled eight months ago just to have a contract to sign.

When word spread last September that Ferry had signed to team with Stewart, some in the sport assumed Ferry was to be Kawasaki's test rider, which offers less glory and a lot less pay for a racer.

"I knew people would think that," he said Friday, smiling at the slight. "That was a misconception.

"I took it as a diss. I don't think people believed I could produce. But I had three months to prepare for the season."

It drove Ferry to work even harder than usual.

He opened the season with a fifth-place finish, and through 17 races he posted 15 top-five finishes, including one runner-up. He has never won a Supercross race.

A year ago as an independent rider for a privateer operation, Ferry, a Florida native living near Tampa, cracked the top 10 six times and ended the season 11th in points.

In September, he received a call from Mike Fisher, who manages the Kawasaki team.

"I knew he was fast and had a ton of talent, but I never expected him to be on the podium as much as he has this season," Fisher said of Ferry's five top-three finishes. "He has really given our team a boost.

"I did expect it out of James," Fisher added.

So did everyone else. Even Ferry.

"James doesn't say a lot or ask many questions," Ferry said. "He doesn't have to. He's not doing anything wrong."

Instead, Ferry has picked Stewart's brain for insight.

"It makes me realize I must be doing something right if someone like Tim Ferry is coming to me for my opinion," Stewart said.

Ferry loves the life he shares with wife Evie and their 2-year-old son, Evan, on the family's 40 acres, which includes Supercross and motocross tracks, in Dade City, Fla.

He has no regrets, but perhaps Ferry would have enjoyed more Supercross success had he been born in a different decade.

His career started near the end of seven-time champion McGrath's career. Then Carmichael took over by winning five of the past six series titles. Now Ferry's sunset years in racing will be spent battling his teammate, Stewart.

"It's been tough competition," said Ferry, who finished behind Stewart and former champion Chad Reed this season. "Finishing third behind those guys is like winning.

"Getting beat by (Stewart) every week is hard to accept. It can be difficult to see yourself ahead of him, but you have to. I was riding close to him for around 10 laps in Detroit (two weeks ago). I started to believe more in myself."

As Ferry said, his gap from the top level of the podium down to third is the difference of just tenths of a second, instead of years past when the gap was measured by several seconds.