It’s Been a Decade, but Powerboats Are Back
For the first time in more than a decade, the fastest offshore boats in the country will be on the West Coast next week for a national championship event.
The Powerboat Magazine Ventura Offshore Grand Prix on Sept. 28-29 will climax a weeklong water festival in and around Ventura Harbor. More than 50 boats ranging from 26 feet to 46-foot Skaters capable of 150 mph will compete in the sixth and final race of the American Power Boat Assn. championships.
The boats will race over an 8.8-mile course visible from shore in four races, two for mini jets and production classes on Saturday and two for the bigger, professional boats on Sunday.
Laith Pharaon of Saudia Arabia will be favored in the open class with his 46-foot Zerodefect, which has won six consecutive races. Pharaon, in only his second season of offshore racing, drives the boat while John Tomlinson of Hollywood, Fla., handles the throttle.
Their biggest challenge should come from owner-driver Jack Carmody’s Spirit of Texas, another 46-foot Skater. Veteran throttleman Art Lilly, a winner of more than 50 races in his career, will be with Carmody.
Southern California’s best hopes come in the modified and D classes.
Rique Ford of Chino, who made a miraculous recovery after being run over by his own boat during a botched theft two years ago in Riverside County, is back in winning form with his Ragamuffin in the modified class. Ford, who won a regional race last year at Ventura in his first outing after getting out of the hospital, won world offshore championships in C and D classes in 1994 and 1995 and, with Craig Archer of Costa Mesa on the throttle, his 36-foot boat set a modified class record at 136.58 mph.
Ford’s main challenge should come from another of Carmody’s Spirit of Texas entries, a 42-foot Fountain, the national points leader. Driver Rodney Rudell and throttleman Curt Harber will have Powerboat magazine editor Eric Colby of Thousand Oaks as navigator on the three-man team. Colby will also drive Standing Room Only, a 26-foot Scarab owned by Buddy Wilson of Avalon, in the A class.
Former world speedway motorcycle champions Bruce Penhall of Laguna Niguel and Dennis Sigalos of Newport Beach are undefeated in Ventura races since they joined the offshore crowd three years ago and are expected to win the D class in their canopied 37-foot Scarab, Ocean Spray. The boat, designed by Larry Smith of Santa Barbara, has won successive world championships.
In honor of the late Bob Nordskog, the Rum Run Perpetual Trophy--an antique brass spittoon resting atop a rum keg--has been resurrected and renamed the Bob Nordskog Memorial Trophy to be awarded to the offshore powerboat racer who best exemplifies sportsmanship. Nordskog, who won the Rum Run to Catalina and back 10 times, also founded the original Ventura Challenge offshore race in 1988.
Motor Racing Notes
STOCK CARS--Tony Stewart, recuperating from a broken shoulder suffered in Sunday’s Indy Racing League race in Las Vegas, has decided to run the full Winston Cup season next year for owner Harry Ranier. . . . Former Indy car driver Robby Gordon will make his Winston Cup debut Oct. 6 at Charlotte, N.C., in a car co-owned by Dale Earnhardt and Felix Sabates.
Winston Racing Series street stocks, Grand American modifieds, bombers and pony stocks will fill Cajon Speedway’s program Saturday night. . . . Kern County Raceway will hold championship races in street stock, V8 modifieds and mini stocks Saturday night. . . . Victorville Speedway will feature street stocks Saturday night. . . . Late models and California dirt cars will share billing Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway.
POWERBOATS--When Mark Evans won the Bayfair Muncey Cup in Miss Budweiser last Sunday at San Diego, it kept intact owner Bernie Little’s record of having won at least one unlimited hydroplane race every year since 1979. The hydros will run an exhibition race Sunday on Lake Mead, near Las Vegas, then head for Honolulu and the season finale Oct. 13. Dave Villwock, in PICO American Dream, has clinched the driver championship.
SPRINT CARS--The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will be at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night with 10-time race winner Rip Williams returning after a week’s absence. While Williams was gone, Rodney Argo of El Segundo scored his first SCRA main event win. . . . IMCA sprints, dwarf cars and karts are scheduled Saturday night at Ventura Raceway.
MOTORCYCLES--The 16-rider field for the U.S. Speedway championships Sept. 28 at the Costa Mesa Speedway in the Orange County Fairgrounds has been set. Defending champion Greg Hancock and former champion Mike Faria will come from the British Speedway League to race against 11 Southern Californians--Steve Lucero, Brad Oxley, Bobby Schwartz, Gary Hicks, Shawn McConnell, John Aden, Andy Northrup, Rob Pfetzing, Jesse Finch, Don Odom and Ed Castro--and three from Northern California--John Sisemore, Bart Bast and Louis Kossuth.
MISCELLANY--Evan Evans of Riverside won seven of eight races in the SODA off-road series to become the first paraplegic racer to win an off-road championship. Evans, 31, drives a Chevrolet pickup equipped with hand controls. . . . The Santa Ana Drags Reunion is Sunday at the Santa Ana Elks Lodge, 212 Elk Lane. . . . Perris Auto Speedway will be the site of a stadium off-road race Sunday.