Anybody that becomes North American champion in any sort of motorsport is worthy of being remem-bered and honoured. Ron Bestward was declared the American Power Boat Association (APBA) champion in the Cracker Box class. His influence on that class was long lasting. (Just for refer-ence a Cracker Box was a flat bottom inboard runabout, 15 feet in length with two seats in back for driver (“jockey”) and mechanic (“hairy ape”). Speeds for five laps on a one-mile course could average upwards of 75 mph.)

Ron came into hydroplane racing in the 1950s eventually relocating his home to Swan’s Point on Hatzic Lake, the location of many of his victories over the years. Business commitments to the area kept him from travelling very far with his Besty’s Baby but at Hatzic, Alouette and Harrison Lakes, in front of thousands of spectators, Ron could be counted on to be near the front.

In 1962 he was high aggregate point winner in BC and was declared the number one Cracker Box racer in North America by the APBA. He didn’t travel south to compete in the nationals for the association as did 1964 Cracker

Ron Bestward - Inducted 2005

Pioneer - Power Boat Racing

Ron Bestward and friends (Larry Braine collection)

By Brian Pratt - 2005

Ron Bestward

Box champion and GVMPS pioneer Bunny Jeboult.

Bestward and Jeboult competed head to head constantly and at one point at the 1964 Northwest Gold Re-gatta at Hatzic Lake, both Bunny and Ron flipped their boats completely over landing right side up and were able to carry on. Bunny ended up first, Ron third.

Ron continued to race into the early 1970s. He was high point cham-pion in

BC in 1969 (and possibly other years) and travelled a bit further to capture class wins at places like Green Lake (Washington) and Kelowna (BC).

It was the efforts of Ron Bestward that helped make the lower mainland a hot bed for Cracker Box racing. Along with Bunny Jeboult there was Max Douet, Bill Lindahl and others who were successful. A telling comment by a Seattle official in 1975 was that “BC always seems to produce excellent Cracker Box boats.” The fact was that most of the US boats competing in the Cracker Box class at the Harrison Lake regatta that year were built by Ron Bestward.

In later years Bestward got invol-ved with ultralite airplanes. Again, he was based out of Hatzic Lake and he hosted fly-ins. It seemed, again, that he was the focal point for entirely differ-ent type of motorsport. The passing of Ron Bestward in 2002 has created a large gap in the history of motorsport in the Greater Vancouver area.