1948 Glenn L. Martin Trophy
Middle River MD, June 27, 1948

Lombardo Takes Speedboat Prize
Wins Free-for-All Event at Middle River in Rebuilt and Repowered Tempo
By Clarence E. Lovejoy

Wilson Point Regatta Lombardo Takes Speedboat Prize

Middle River, Md., June 27 [1948] -- Guy Lombardo served a stern and formal warning this afternoon on Danny Foster, Dan Arena, Clell Perry, Mel Crook and every other Gold Cup driver in sight that he means business for 1948 and no foolin'.

Making his first competitive appearance since last fall, the Long Island band leader signalized the early stages of his battle to regain the famous speed boating bauble he lost last August on Jamaica Bay to Foster by winning the free-for-all event and the Glenn L. Martin Trophy.

With his repowered, rebuilt and renamed Tempo held at half throttle, Lombardo toyed with a fleet of four 225-cubic inch class boats and yet was able to beat by several city blocks his fellow townsman from Freeport, Joe Van Blerck Jr., who was second in his Aljo V. The bandsman's speed, although slow for his amazing Tempo, was nevertheless a creditable 55.18 miles an hour.

Actually Lombardo came here today for a very different purpose. He planned to make an early-morning, flat-water time trial in his ambition to beat Gar Wood's long-standing 124 miles an hour. Lombardo has been over-hauling this little by little, driving his Tempo 116 M.P.H. at Miami Beach in March and being clocked at 119 M.P.H. later this spring on the below sea level Salton Sea, Calif., where carburetors and superchargers act better.

Since then Tempo, formerly named Tempo VI, has been at Arno Apel's Ventnor, N.J., boat works, getting a news stiffening with seven layers of plywood over the original mahogany hull and a new three-blade propeller.

This morning Lombardo, while most folks were still in the Sunday morning hay, zoomed out onto the one-mile straightaway.

But a foggy haze was still rolling up from Chesapeake Bay and his visibility was uncertain for a boat bouncing along at two-mile-a-minute clip. Lombardo at least had a shakedown cruise with his new hull planking, his new Allison aircraft motor and his new propeller. But on returning to the ramp he lost his way off the Darkhead Cove course and wound up in shoal water on the upper reaches of Middle River. After some more tinkering and with Van Blerck taking out Tempo for one spin, Lombardo then came to the reluctant decision that he would refrain from further one-mile attempts and compete in the free-for-all.

Several runabouts smaller than Lombardo's Gold Cupper were able to negotiate one-mile time trials and at least one new speed mark was set.

Edmund Thompson of Dundalk, Md., in a Class C racing runabout, was clocked up and down the mile at 53.176 and 53.333 for an average of 53.255 M.P.H., erasing the former record of 52.555 set on the Potomac last September by Mrs. Mildred Foulke.

(Reprinted from the New York Times June 28, 1948)

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