1950 APBA Gold Cup
Detroit River, Detroit MI, July 22,1950
Qualifying Trials for Gold Cup Speed-Boat Regatta
New Records Loom in Detroit Classic
Sayres to Race Slo-mo-shun, Holder of World Mark, in Gold Cup Event July 22
By Clarence E. Lovejoy
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Now less than three weeks away, the 1950 Gold Cup regatta, always America's premier speedboat classic, is already beginning to look like a sensational race meet with perhaps unheard of speeds.
Last week's new world record of an average of 160.32 mph on two one-mile straightaway runs at Seattle by Stanley S. Sayres in the Slo-mo-shun IV brings into the select circle of Gold Cup daredevils a brand new threat.
Sayres, a 53-year-old automobile dealer, expects to go to Detroit for the Gold Cup event and there meet the veteran regatta pilots, including Bill Cantrell, Guy Lombardo, Dan Arena and the others.
The Detroit International Regatta Association, which is handling the arrangements for the big event on Saturday, July 22, announced yesterday that qualifying trials would be held on the mornings of July 18, 19, 20 and 21. Twelve boats will be selected from the tests from among those demonstrating their ability to do three trial laps at speeds of 65 mph or faster.
Ford Trophy at Stake
Although the Gold Cup rules are not exactly like those for unlimited hydroplanes, most owners of these expensive toys are preparing not only for the July 22 event but also for two later regattas in Detroit. These are the Detroit Memorial for the Henry Ford Trophy and of the challenge prizes on July 29 and the Silver Cup Regatta on Sept. 4 as a finale to the Harmsworth Race over the Labor Day week-end.
Whereas the Gold Cup eligibles must be under forty feet in length and whereas the races for unlimited hydroplanes can be for larger hulls, none of the expected entrants is over the forty feet mark.
* * *
Lombardo Craft Lengthened
Never has a regatta year produced so many available super-powered speedboats. Sayres' Slo-mo-shun IV, with its light weight of 4,500 pounds may, of course, turn out to be a craft more suited for straightaway time trials than for the rugged navigation of buoyed turns in a slam-bang competitive event.
Therefore, Horace E. Dodge's My Sweetie, which won practically everything in sight last summer, will be feared by its rivals as will Lombardo's lengthened Tempo VI, which demonstrated new maneuverability on turns in winning the invitation race at Middle River MD a fortnight ago and Danny Murphy's Dee-Jay V in which George Miller won the Fite Memorial at Ocean City NJ on Decoration Day.
Jack Schafer has his two craft, Such Crust I and Such Crust II and is on the lookout for possible drivers in the event Dan Arena decides to get behing the wheel of a boat he is now completing at his Mount Clemens MI yard. Possibly Lou Fageol will pilot one of them.
George Sarant's Etta from Freeport LI won the Harwood Race around Manhattan last September and could be dangerous in this year's big league regatta. Al Fallon's Miss Great Lakes, winner of the 1948 Gold Cup, has been reconditioned. The Dossin brothers of Detroit have their newest Miss Pepsi, a huge 36-foot long creation. Harold Wilson, Ingersoll ON has his Miss Canada IV and Henry J. Kaiser his Harmsworth boat Aluminum First and his Gold Cup boat Hot Metal which have been getting some tuning at Oakland CA. Possibly the veteran Gibson Bradfield will drive one of them.
Although R. Stanley Dollar Jr. lost his 1949 Harmsworth winner, Skip-A-Long, in the depths of Lake Tahoe CA last fall it is said that he may buy or drive this summer either Morlan Visel's Hurricane IV or Harry Lynn's Lahala.
(Reprinted from the New York Times July 2, 1950)
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