Motorboat Racing: Growth Stocks

In most sports typical American reasoning holds that if one is good, then two are better, and three or four or even five are like zoom, man! Take, for instance, last week's Outboard World Championships at Lake Havasu, Ariz. To landlubbers, outboard-motor-boat racing may seem pretty put-put, and indeed, the rules at Havasu limited boats strictly to "stock" models — except that there was no limit on how many engines anyone could stack. California's Bob Ogle turned up with a 17-ft. catamaran powered by five 85-h.p. McCulloch engines, capable of doing 102 m.p.h. Only slightly less potent was U-707, a 17-ft. cat with three 105-h.p. Chryslers, and driven by a trio of leadfoots calculated to inspire respect: Major William Knight, holder of the world air speed record (4,534 m.p.h.), Lee Taylor, holder of the water speed record (285 m.p.h.), and Craig Breedlove, the land speed record holder (600 m.p.h.).

With that kind of competition, Mike Reagan, 22, hardly figured to stand much of a chance. Son of California Governor Ronald Reagan, he had a fast boat: a 20-ft. Rayson Craft with three 125-h.p. Mercury engines. In Bill Cooper and Rudy Ramos, he had veteran teammates. But Mike had never raced an outboard before.

Outboard racers call Lake Havasu's four-mile course "the toughest in the U.S.," and last week's eight-hour race was a battle for survival. Within two hours, 26 boats were out of action, including Ogle's catamaran. Craig Breed-love's U-707 flipped and catapulted him out of the cockpit. With Teammates Cooper and Ramos handling the wheel, Reagan's Rayson Craft opened up a 6-mi. lead; then, with an hour and a half to go, Mike took over. It was eventful: the boat's dashboard collapsed, and Reagan had to prop it up with one hand while he steered with the other. He still managed to stay in front. Zipping across the finish line, Reagan won his first outboard race at an average speed of 59.4 m.p.h.