MARINE ENGINE MAGICIAN DREW BACKLUND PASSES AWAY

Drew Backlund in later years. Backlund family photos

SPOKANE – Notable captains of the automotive industry and politicians were in his Rolodex.

He exited – literally – the seat of his flat bottom race boat and went on to become a very innovative engine builder and automotive accessory inventor.

And as a young man, Drew Backlund had a most notable street race against someone who would go on to become a national name in network television.

Backlund, 82, passed away due to respiratory issues April 18, 2025, at home with his wife, Cathryn by his side.

He might have not had such a memorable and creative life had Backlund not decided to get out of the driver’s seat of his race boat, Stone Gone, following a spectacular crash on Lake Sammamish in 1971.

“He was leading that race coming out of turn two and barrel rolled it,” younger brother Steve recalled. “I was on him all the time because I said it’s just too dangerous of a sport at 100 miles an hour, 14 or 15, feet long with that kind of power,” his brother said.

For the most part after that accident his power boating was left to cruising area lakes.

Outside, that is of a memorable attempt at a world kilometer straightaway record in 1985 at Parker, Arizona where Backlund clocked a pass of 157 miles-per-hour. He declined a second pass required for a record because “It scared him so bad,” his wife said.

Cathy Backlund did remember another memorable outing where her husband strapped her into the seat of high-powered speedboat. It was their second date.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh, I might not see my mother again, but actually, I would get into anything that man was driving.’”

Backlund’s true claim to fame ended up being as a high-performance engine builder with hundreds of motors going out the door of the shop at his home.

Best known for his Fords, “He could build a Chevy as well as he could build a Ford,” his wife said.

Backlund was born on June 30, 1943, in San Francisco to Andrew Frank James III and Mary Bell Bennett. He graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane in 1961.

Backlund was, perhaps, best known in high school for his 1957 Ford with Edsel taillights, Steve Backlund said.

“Everybody knew that car,” his brother said. “They had a picture at the police station and it had a broadside picture of the car and it said ‘The most watched car in Spokane.’”

Growing up in Spokane, the Backlund boys were adopted by Fred Backlund who was a longtime beer distributor.

Both Drew and Steve were part of the car culture that was so prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s. “If you conjure up a vision of the movie American Graffiti, that’s my husband,” Cathy Backlund said.

The boys biological father was Andrew Frank James III, an attorney in Gooding Idaho near Twin Falls, famous for among other things, the spectacular Perrine Memorial Bridge crossing high above the Snake River.

Backlund drove that notorious 1957 Ford down to Idaho one time to visit his father and decided to do some street – ‘er bridge – racing.

Besides winning the race, “All he remembered were the front teeth of the guy and the kind of funny look of him,” Cathy Backlund said. Decades later the Backlunds would learn much more about who that kid in the other car was.

During a TV interview the subject told the story of “Racing this hot rod guy that had come down from Spokane and the only time he’d ever been beaten.”

Turns out it was Lou Dobbs who would go on to become a face on national television as a political commentator. “Drew just sat there and went ‘That was Lou Dobbs?’” Cathy Backlund said.

While Backlund never went to college he turned out to be a self-made multi-millionaire by dreaming and thinking of solutions to problems of the day.

Seat-of-the-pants engineering had a cadre of local motorsports innovators in the 1960s. They included Earl Wham, Edsol Sneva, Fred Rogers, Jim Tipke, Bob Schultz – and of course Backlund.

He perfected and patented fixes for carburetors, exhaust systems, high performance engine crankshaft tweaks and more. “His whole life was designing things, improving things,” Steve Backlund said. And not just locally.

Backlund was often in contact with the Vice President from Ford Motor Company, Eddie Lyons, who sought his advice.

Having trouble with the oiling system in one particular engine, Backlund went to work to find a fix and, “Of course, it worked,” Steve Backlund said.

“He was kind of a little bit of a nut on weird things,” his brother said. “I remember he called up Schneider Cams one time and said, ‘Your rocker arms say (they measure) 1.6 he said they’re not 1.6, who checks rocker arms?’”

Backlund knew people all over the world and they included businessman and politician Ross Perot who had a boat with a Backlund motor.

Unlike others who kept ‘secret sauce’ recipes to themselves, Backlund often shared all the details of his work in articles for Hot Boat Magazine, one of the foremost high-performance publications of the 1960s and 1970s.

Backlund seemingly had engineering in his genes as his grandmother was a rare woman graduate of the Colorado School of Engineering.

Old-school in many ways, Backlund hand blueprinted everything and was meticulous, his wife said. “And if something was wrong with the machining, it was sent back.”

Backlund was raised in Spokane by his stepfather, Fred Backlund, and his mother, Mary Bell, attending Jefferson, Hutton, St. George’s as well as Lewis and Clark achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.

Backlund joined the Marines in 1961 and credits that with his discipline, drive and all the successes in his life.

Backlund is survived by his wife and companion of 36 years, Cathryn; his son, Andrew of Spokane; son, Christian Naboa of San Diego; daughters, Helen Baker of Auburn and Heather Spodnick; his brothers, Steve Backlund of Spokane, Lee Backlund, Joseph James of Gooding Idaho, and Ashley James; and sisters, Claudia Morehead, Newport Beach, Calif. and Cathi James of Gooding.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, May 10 at 11 a.m. at Hennessy Funeral Home on Division Street in Spokane.

The memorable logo for Drew Marine. Backlund family photos