Ford Makes Comeback From Crushing Setback

Rique Ford, who was run over by his own 12,000-pound boat and trailer and left for dead in a botched boat theft 10 months ago, is racing again--and winning.

Ford, in a bigger and faster Ragamuffin III, won the 120-mile Lake Tahoe High Sierra Shootout on Sunday. It was the first race for the Jamaica native since the accident, which occurred last Oct. 1 in the driveway of his home in Norco.

“The doctors said I wouldn’t be able to walk for two years, and I was walking in four months,” Ford said. “They didn’t think I would ever race again, and all my doctor said after we won at Lake Tahoe was, ‘It’s unbelievable,’ ”

The Tahoe race was the first of a seven-event Pacific Offshore Power Boat Racing Assn. season in which West Coast boats try to qualify for the world championships in November off Key West, Fla.

“We won [the world championship] last year without me, but I’ll be there this year,” Ford said. “We need three finishes in the top three, and we got off to a good start at Tahoe. We even won overall, beating the open-class boats.”

Ford was in Riverside General Hospital last year when Ragamuffin II won the Class C world title with Paul Whittier and Kirk Drueteman in the boat. In 1993, Ford and Whittier won the title in the same 32-foot boat.

This season, with a new 36-foot Marine Skater, Ford, 34, has moved up to the Modified class, one step below open boats.

In the accident, Ford suffered a crushed pelvis, a ruptured spleen and colon, broken hands and cuts and bruises over his entire body after three wheels of the six-ton load rolled over his lower abdomen. The boat was recovered within hours in Chino, but the thief escaped.

“I feel great now,” Ford said Wednesday. “I can’t wait for the next race.”

The second POPBRA race is the Powerboat Magazine Ventura Offshore Challenge Aug. 18-19.

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A four-man team headed by Mark Nemschoff, a Sheboygan, Wis., furniture manufacturer, has broken the Chicago-to-Detroit speed record on water by nearly four hours.

Nemschoff drove a 40-foot turbocharged Kohler Power Systems boat over the 620-mile course in 8 hours 10 minutes 47 seconds, shattering the record of 12:08:42 set by actor Chuck Norris in August 1990. Nemschoff’s boat averaged 76.4 m.p.h.

“It’s exhilarating to break the record and break it so decisively,” he said. “We not only set a speed and endurance record, we also ran this race for the first time without making a fuel stop.”

For the Chicago-Detroit run, the boat carried about 780 gallons of fuel and finished with about 50 gallons.

Earlier in the year, Nemschoff won the Mille Miglia del Mediterraneo Viareggio, a 1,000-mile powerboat race around Italy, driving the same boat. He also won the Miami-to-New York race last year.

The first Chicago-Detroit record-holder was Michael Reagan, son of the former President, who had a time of 12:34:41 in 1983. Norris and Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton failed in an attempt to get the record before Norris succeeded in 1990.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--With Saugus Speedway closed by its owners, the season champions are the drivers leading on July 15: Late model division--Brian Kelley, Arleta; Grand American modified--Dave Phipps, Simi Valley; mini stocks--Robert Hynes, West Hills; super late model--Sean Woodside, Saugus; street stock--Gerrit Cromsigt, Pine Mountain, and pure stock--Dana Rea, North Hollywood. They will be honored at a final awards banquet on Nov. 11 at the Odyssey restaurant in Granada Hills.

Saturday night racing is scheduled for Kern County Raceway in Willow Springs, Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino, Cajon Speedway in El Cajon, Sunrise Valley Raceway in Adelanto and Blythe Speedway. . . . Ventura Raceway will run Friday night with street stocks and IMCA modifieds.

SPRINT CARS--Drivers of the Sprint Car Racing Assn. will return to Santa Maria Speedway on Saturday night after three races in Washington and Oregon. Lealand McSpadden won both events at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. . . . IMCA sprinters will share billing Saturday night at Ventura Raceway with U.S. Auto Club three-quarter midgets. . . . Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale will have a doubleheader this weekend for winged sprint cars with a NARC main event Friday night and a Golden State Challenge points race Saturday night. Brent Kaeding is leading in both series, although closely challenged by Paul McMann in NARC.

MIDGETS--Billy Boat of Phoenix set a USAC record for consecutive victories in one series when he won his eighth Western States midget main event Saturday night at Bakersfield. This bettered the mark held by A.J. Foyt in Indy cars in 1965 and by Billy Vukovich III in supermodifieds in 1987.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Glen Helen Speedway in San Bernardino will feature street-legal Harleys on the speedway course Friday night in addition to the regular program. . . . Speedway USA in Victorville is dark this week.

MISCELLANY--The American Nostalgia Racing Assn. will hold its Nitromania II Saturday at the Norton drag strip in San Bernardino. Featured will be a Top Fuel Invitational. . . . The fourth annual Mikuni Calendar Street Bike Show will be held Sunday at the Santa Monica Airport’s Museum of Flying. Factory racing teams from Team Yoshimura/Suzuki, Vance & Hines Yamaha, Team Valvoline/Suzuki Endurance and Erion Racing will be on display. . . . Western Legends dwarf cars will race Saturday night at San Bernardino’s Orange Show Speedway.