TUNNEL BOAT RACING WORLD CHAMPION
Fountain's drive to dominate was born at an early age. At a time when most kids were watching cartoons on Saturday morning, Reggie entered his first boat race in 1954 at the age of 14. After winning everything there was to win, he moved into professional competition in 1970. A year later, while driving for Glastron Boats, he was named the Houston Gulf Coast Marathon Association Champion and the Outstanding New Driver at the Lake Havasu World Championships. Relying on an uncanny knack for speed and the ability to reap major gains from minor adjustments, Fountain launched a superstar-racing career. The following year, operating as an independent, he made boat-racing history by setting two world records and earning three national closed-course championships all in one day at the Marine Stadium in Miami. Fountain's dominant performance as an independent earned him a place on the vaunted Mercury Factory Team where he teamed with Bill Seebold and Earl Bentz to become the most dominant trio in tunnel outboard history.

Sporting the Mercury corporate colors, Fountain won an amazing 20 of 31 races entered in 1973. In 1975, he followed up by winning 10 of 19 events. But it was the bicentennial year of 1976 that will be remembered as the pinnacle of Fountain's tunnel racing career. He finished first in 15 of 23 races entered, capped by a well-deserved title at the St. Louis OZ World Championships. Fountain won the prestigious St. Louis race again in 1978, then retired from active competition the following year to pursue an extensive R&D testing program commissioned by Mercury Marine while continuing to manage his growing real estate interests.