Billy Boat

Billy Boat was already establishing the B&B Performance Exhaust company that thrives today as he completed his degree in finance at Arizona State University. That was in 1986, and three years later he was racing midgets on USAC’s western circuit.

Midget Champion and Indycar debut

He won 11 consecutive feature races on the way to the 1995 title and turned his attention to the new Indy Racing League. He crashed in qualifying for the 1996 Indianapolis 500 but made the field for the race a year later when he led a lap and finished seventh in A.J.Foyt’s Dallara IR7-Aurora.

That was originally a one-off appearance but Boat later substituted for the injured Scott Sharp – finishing second at Texas and Charlotte and qualifying in pole position at Las Vegas.

Indycar winner for A.J.Foyt

Those performances were enough to earn a fulltime ride for 1998 in Foyt’s Dallara. He qualified on pole position six times that year. Those included the Indianapolis 500 and he led the opening 12 laps at the Brickyard before retiring. He won the True Value 500 at Texas by a scant 0.928sec but fractured his left leg and pelvis in a crash at New Hampshire.

Boat missed two races due to those injuries but remained with the team in 1999 – qualifying and finishing third at Indy. His regular ride for 2000 was a Team Pelfrey Dallara-Aurora in which he finished third at Texas, but that was a rare highlight that year.

A move to Curb-Agajanian Motorsports was rewarded with eight top-10 finishes (including second place at Nashville) and a career-best fourth in the 2001 Indycar standings.

Team owner at the end of his career

He became co-owner of the renamed Boat Indy Racing team for 2002 and was on pole again at Nashville. However, results were not forthcoming and Boat made just one more Indycar start. He survived heavy contact with the pitwall during practice for the 2003 Indianapolis 500 and his Panther Racing Dallara IR3-Chevrolet was an early retiree from the race.