Kurt Nicoll (No. 31), David Baffeleuf (No. 23) and Jeff Ward (No. 3X) line up on the front row for the 2004 AMA Supermoto championship finale. Ward chalked one up for the baby-boomers. The 43-year-old former AMA Motocross and Supercross champ, from Newport Beach, Fla., won the AMA Red Bull Supermoto A-Go-Go finale on a one-mile course set up in the parking lot of Bally’s Las Vegas.

The victory clinched the 2004 AMA Supermoto Championship for Ward making him at the time the oldest AMA racing champion on record.

Ward chased Germany’s Jurgen Kunzel for most of the 18-lap final. With two laps to go Ward moved his Honda past Kunzel’s KTM to take over the lead and held on to win his third race of the year. David Baffeleuf of France was third.

“I put a little Supercross block pass on him,” Ward said of his late pass on Kunzel. “It’s hard to believe I’m back wining AMA championships again. I never dreamed this would happen.”

Kunzel knew Ward’s pass was trouble.

“I thought ‘Oh no!’ when he went by me,” Kunzel said in a thick German accent. “On this track is easy to lead, but not so easy to pass. Ward raced a very good race as did I. I just needed to hold on a little longer but could not do it.”

Ward proved that you don’t necessarily have to be a young man to win in a young man’s sport. He won seven AMA Motocross and Supercross titles before retiring from motorcycle racing in the early 1990s to pursue a career in Indy Car racing. After a successful career in car racing, which included winning the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Award, Ward returned to motorcycling last year.

The 2004 AMA Supermoto Championship marked Ward’s eighth AMA national title and his first since 1990.

Brit Kurt Nicoll won the Unlimited support race.