Remembering Ted Gryguc Canadian Motorsports Hall Of Fame Boat Racer

Remembering Ted Gryguc Canadian Motorsports Hall Of Fame Boat Racer
Shot from one of the many events we spent hanging out with Ted at NGK F1 Races. Photo courtesy of Mercury Marine’s David St-Laurent capture well we were parading between the pits and ramp on the streets of Valleyfield.

A sad week in the boat racing world as one of Canada’s great boat racers and high performance master minds Ted Gryguc passes away after a hard fought battle with cancer. The Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame tunnel boat racer lived and breathed boat racing. From his decorated formula boat racing career to his involvement with many teams and drivers to this day through his shop SpeedMaster Marine, Ted wore his passion on sleeves.

Starting off as a Mod VP driver in the 80’s where he earned himself a World Championship title along with numerous National and High Points titles Ted quickly found his way into Formula Boat Racing in the 90’s where he excelled, racing in both the U.S and Canadian series claiming again a number of Canadian High Points Championships as well as National Championships. 

During his racing career he started his own high performance boat shop in Southern Ontario which became one of the premier spots for high performance outboard owners across North America to go for repairs, service and of course custom builds. Known too many as Mr. Mercury he was one of the most knowledgeable people in the industry and definitely one of best to ever conversant with in regards to Mercury outboards. He had seen it all and worked on it all as well. To this day many drivers and teams work side by side with him to be as competitive as possible, this includes North American  NGK Formula One drivers Like Tammy Wolf, Rusty Wyatt, and Bryan Babineau to F1 H2O’s World Champions Shaun Torrente and Jay Price to name a few. From crew chief to radio man he was always there to lend a hand to his drivers and fellow racers.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-2.jpeg
Photo featuring current F1 H2O World Champion Shaun Torrente with Ted Gryguc. Photo Embed from Paul Kemiel Photographics.

His life revolved around the sport and it extended to his family including his wife, two sons and daughter who could always be seen with him at events as they were a very important part of his life. Weather you stopped by his shop for a quick visit or ran into him at an event you could always end up in hour long conversations with the man about anything boating he was just a down to earth and calm mannered guy off the course but when it came to racing he was all business and there was normally no one better to have on your side. He will be deeply missed by many including all of us at BoatStars who have come to get to know him extremely well over years as he was a local boy with our crew members North of border. Race In peace friend. A digital online memorial is set to take place this week in honor of him link will be available once we receive it: Click Here For Service

Brief look at some of his top titles over his race career:

1980-1988: 6X Mod VP Canadian High Points Champion and 5X National Championships

1987: First Canadian to win seven hour Parker Arizona Enduro

1988: Won Bill Muncey Memorial Trophy

1988: First Canadian to win Lake Havasu Classic

1991: Mod VP World Champion

1995: F1 Canadian National Champion

1996: F1 Canadian National Champion

1997: F1 Canadian High Points Champion

1998: F1 Canadian National Champion

1998: F1 Canadian High Points Champion

1999: F1 Canadian High Points Champion

2007: Inducted Into Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame