1950 APBA Gold Cup
Detroit River, Detroit MI, July 22,1950
Record Holder in Gold Cup
Local speedboat fans will have a rare treat in store for them when they wend their way to the banks of the Detroit River for the running of the Gold Cup regatta next Monday, July 1.
Last Monday, June 27, automobile dealer Stan Sayres set the motorboat world buzzing when he cracked the World speedboat record of 141.74 almost by 19 miles per hour with his 28-foot hydroplane Slo-Mo-Shun [IV] on Lake Washington.
In the early, hours of Monday morning Sayres zipped over the measured mile course on his first run in 21.98 seconds or 163.785 miles per hour. After refueling Sayres was clocked at 22.95 seconds or 156.862 miles per hour. The combined speeds established the new world record at 160.3235.
After the amazing performance Sayres refused to try to break his own new mark and said the next time the boat would run would be in the Gold Cup races. The boat will be entered in the Harmsworth if it perforrns as expected.
The old world mark was set by England’s Sir Malcolm Campbell back in 1939 on Lake Cones-ton, England in Bluebird II.
The North American record of 138.60 miles per hour set by Harold Wilson’s Miss Canada at Picton, Ontario in 1949 and the U. S. mark of 127.083 established by Dan Arena in Jack Schafer’s Such Crest on Gull Lake, Michigan also were wiped from the record book.
Sayres riding mechanic on the record breaking run was Ted Jones, designer of Slo-mo-shun which was built in Seattle, Washington.
The ship is powered with a war surplus 12-cylinder Allison aircraft engine with a stepped up gear which boosts the propellor r.p.m.’s.
[Reprinted from the Grosse Pointe News, June 29, 1950, p.12]
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