Fear on Suicide Circle

What can a man do for kicks after he gets bored with wrestling alligators? Well, he can jump off bridges or jaywalk at Indy on Memorial Day or invite a cannibal in for lunch. Or, as ex-Alligator Wrestler Odell Lewis did, he can turn to powerboat racing.

The general idea is to take a boat out into the deep, open her up to 50-60 knots, and pray. It helps to have a basic knowledge of navigation, a strong stomach, and a desire to get the ordeal over with as quickly as possible. Lewis, 34, who last week won the Bahamas 500 for the second year in a row, was once asked what made him go so fast. Said he simply: "Fear."

Stony Seas. The Bahamas 500 is the granddaddy of all powerboat races--a 589-mile suicide circle around the islands starting and ending at Freeport Grand Bahama. For most of the 37 boats in last week's 500, the race ended elsewhere. Driving rain drenched the crews, and visibility was down to zero as fierce squalls kicked up 5-ft. swells. Florida's John Heinrich was only 30 miles out of Freeport when waves ripped the deck off his 26-ft. Alim outboard. Between Chub Cay and Nassau, the 24-ft. Nova inboard of Miamian Allan Brown ran out of gas, then wallowed helplessly in the wash for more than four hours while rescue planes searched for it.

The weather took its toll of men as well as machinery. Drivers at least had steering wheels to hold on to, but mechanics and navigators were flung around the cockpits like rag dolls as their boats stuttered across the stony seas. Aboard Thunderbird V, a 31-ft. inboard, Novice Navigator Rocky Marciano, now 43, wished openly that he had stayed on dry land. "I'd rather fight Joe Louis and Jersey Joe Walcott at the same time," the ex-heavyweight champ told Driver Dick Genth.

In Mona Lou III, a 32-ft. Maritime inboard powered by two 475-h.p. Mercury engines, Odell Lewis was worried not so much about winning as merely staying afloat. A draining, plug had popped out of Mona Lou's hull; when Lewis pulled into Nassau to refuel, he had to leap overboard and plug the hole with rags to keep the boat from sinking. Finally, after 10 hr. 54 min. of whomping on the water, during which he averaged 54 m.p.h., Lewis crossed the finish line to win the $10,000 first prize by a margin of only four seconds over Runner-Up Bill Sirois' 31-ft. Bertram. "You have to be on your toes all the time," Lewis allowed. Indeed he had been: he drove the race standing up and barefoot.

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