At 69, Hollister’s Richard Ferreira lives life in the fast
lane
— he recently took 2nd in the national INEX standings
HOLLISTER
When Richard Ferreira discusses the secret to staying sharp on the race track, it comes out like a line from Peter Pan. After all, the 69-year-old Hollister driver is roughly 30 years older than many of his competitors, yet remains at the top of his game and near the top of the standings as if he were an up-and-coming racer.
Said Ferreira, “You stay young and you never grow up.”
Boasting quick reflexes and good eye sight — he uses glasses for reading, not racing — the retired general contractor recently finished runner-up in the national INEX point standings for Thunder Roadsters, otherwise known as Thundercars, and took third place at the World Finals in Las Vegas last December.
His 17 road-course races last season included eight second-place finishes, including one in the regional qualifier at Infineon, while his 1,158 compiled points bested 33 other drivers, many of whom are veteran racers in their late 30s and early 40s.
Ferreira, meanwhile, will be 70 in September. The eldest in NASCAR is Mark Martin at 51.
“I’m a rarity that runs up front,” he joked.
“Where else could a 70-year-old go out and play with 30-year-olds and be equal with them?”
Behind the wheel of a throwback Thundercar, an open-wheel race car that resembles the Indy vehicles of the 1950s and 60s, Ferreira, who can hit speeds upwards of 140 miles per hour, doesn’t appear to be slowing down just yet.
Heck, he just started racing when he was 54.
“I kind of thought that last year was my last year, but it was one of the best years I’ve ever had,” said Ferreira, who finished on the top-three podium in 13 of the 17 races he competed in last season. In two of the four races where he didn’t finish in the top three, Ferreira had car troubles.
“If I continue to run up in the front, I’ll return,” he added. “If I’m gonna run with everybody else in the back, I won’t do it.”
To date, Ferreira hasn’t necessarily been running with the pack – he’s been leading it. He finished third nationally in both 2008 and 2006, was 10th in 2007 (although he missed the important regional race that year), and was the California state champion in the masters division in 1999 when he was racing circle track behind the wheel of a RACEceiver Legend.
But unlike the racers of today, who can be found behind the wheel of a race car before a driver’s license is ever afforded, Ferreira picked up most of what he knows not necessarily with “seat time,” but with observing other drivers.
It’s a slightly backward tale of how most drivers come to fruition.
“But I crewed for some pretty good drivers,” said Ferreira, who “wrenched” for racing legends like Billy Vukovich at Indianapolis in 1970 and Tom Sneva at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1979 — Ferreira’s final year in the pit.
Financial reasons pulled Ferreira off the track for several years, although he remained up-to-date in the sport by subscribing to racing magazines and following a good friend to local club races, where the two would race Mustangs.
It wasn’t until 1994 that Ferreira shelled out $15,000 for a RACEceiver Legend, and he hasn’t slowed down since.
Joe Maylish is the regional manager for U.S. Legend Cars International, and he hasn’t seen anyone like Ferreira since he started with the company seven years ago.
“He has such a fire inside and it’s remarkable to watch,” Maylish said. “He’s so competitive. His feelings are that he’s gonna go out there and win.”
Maylish recalled one race at Infineon last season when Ferreira and another driver, Robert Lamb, got “tangled up” during the race.
“And Richard was really upset,” Maylish added. “But the way it goes in racing, 10 minutes later they were sharing a beer and talking about the whole thing.
“I don’t know what it is in his background that makes him so competitive.”
To Ferreira, there’s only one answer.
“That’s racing,” he said. “It’s a competition.”
The Hollister driver’s competitive spirit appears to hold true, at least on the track. Off it, Ferreira receives help from other drivers prior to racing — he’s essentially a one-man crew team, after all — while he himself lent his back-up engine to Modesto’s Randy Raduechel about three races into the season last year in what was a case of blatant sportsmanship.
It was the 42-year-old Raduechel who took first place last season when he compiled 1,200 points in the INEX standings, the most possible points a driver can accumulate.
“The guy is too good not to race,” Ferreira said. “He deserves to be the champion.
“The only time I can beat him is if he breaks.”
The INEX Thundercar series is a spec series, where each and every car is about the same and races are won mostly on drivers’ abilities, leaving one to wonder just how good Ferreira would have been behind the wheel 30 to 40 years ago.
“He’s putting a whoopin’ on a lot of people that are half his age,” said Raduechel, a veteran driver of 31 years. At 69, Ferreira is two years older than Raduechel’s father.
“I look up to him as an equal,” Raduechel said. “He does what he wants to do and he’s doing it well.”
Whether this will be Ferreira’s final year on the track remains to be seen, but the only place where the 69-year-old is slowing down is in the shop. He spends roughly 40 hours on his No. 5 Thundercar in between races.
“Most of the work you can do from the top,” he said. “With the Legend cars, you’ve got to get underneath. And, at my age, it’s easier to stand up then crawl under.”
Believe it or not, Ferreira added, “I don’t move too fast.”
