1953 APBA Gold Cup
Lake Washington, Seattle WA, August 9, 1953
Slo-Mo-Shun IV Keeps Gold Cup
By Ray Krantz; Photographs by Ray Krantz
[Photographs not available at
this time]
|
|
|
Boat |
Fastest Race Bonus Points |
Fastest Heat Bonus Points |
First Heat Points |
Second Heat Points |
Third Heat Points |
Total Points |
|
Slo-Mo-Shun IV |
400 |
400 |
400 |
400 |
400 |
2,000 |
|
Gale II |
|
|
300 |
225 |
300 |
825 |
|
Such Crust III |
|
|
169 |
300 |
225 |
694 |
|
Miss U.S. |
|
|
127 |
169 |
DNS |
296 |
|
Such Crust V |
|
|
225. |
DNF |
DNF |
225 |
|
Miss Great Lakes II |
‘ |
|
DNF |
DNS |
DNS |
— |
|
Slo-Mo-Shun V |
|
|
DNS |
DNS |
DNS |
— |
|
Boat not qualified for race; not ready to start race due
to accident prior to race, during qualifying week. |
|
Method of Determining Winner: Per heat-400 points for
first, 300 for second, 225 for third, 169 for fourth, 127 for fifth. 400
points for fastest (one) 30-mile heat; 400 points for fastest total 90
miles |
|
Come Gold Cup race time, and if you’re a wise man, you’ll throw
away all your preconceived notions about the race. Except one thing, and that
is, never sell Slo-Mo-Shun IV (of Seattle) short. Even the pre-conceived
notion that Slo-Mo-Shun IV is mostly a straightaway boat went into
the limbo this year. Not only is this brown mahogany "water bullet" the fastest
motorboat in the world with a one-mile straightaway record of 178.497 m.p.h.,
set July 7, 1952, but she is a superlative competition boat, completely
satisfactory on the turns and all.
This was shown in convincing style August 9 on Seattle’s Lake
Washington Gold Cup course, when the Stanley S. Sayres’ craft, flying the
Seattle Yacht Club burgee, took first place in all three heats, in the 46th
annual Gold Cup race, for a total of 1,200 points, and in so doing, she earned
800 additional points, 400 each, for fastest heat, and fastest 90 miles. This
gave her a perfect score of 2,000 points; that’s all a boat can win.
Shortly before the race, in a switch of drivers, Joe Taggart of
Canton, Ohio (he drove Al Fallon’s Miss Great Lakes II in the Gold Cup in
1952), took over as pilot of Slo-Mo-Shun IV. Taggart, on very short
notice and with little time to familiarize himself with the boat, turned in a
superlatively fine job of driving; he drove the boat in the first and final
heats. Lou Fageol, who was to have driven the unlucky Slo-Mo-Shun V, took
over for the second heat. (Pre-race news had indicated that Paul Sawyer would
drive. —Ed.)
Taggart, in qualifying Slo-Mo-Shun IV August 6, set a new
qualifying mark of 107.5 m.p.h. for three laps around the new 3.75-mile Gold Cup
course. After this performance, Seattle Slo-Mo fans breathed easier,
because on Wednesday, August 5, just four days before the race, Slo-Mo-Shun V,
Lou Fageol driving, threw a propeller blade during a high speed test run on Lake
Washington. She wound up waterlogged close to shore with a broken strut, a
corkscrew shaped drive shaft and a sizable hole in her bottom among other
things.
A Navy aircraft rescue crane picked up the practically sunken
boat, and delivered the boat to Anchor Jensen at the Jensen Motor Boat
Corporation yard on Portage Bay where repairs were rushed. Day-and-night work
turned out to be in vain, for the morning of the race, Slo-Mo-Shun V was
still in trouble; her shaft was out of line, her magneto was giving trouble, and
added to that, she had carburetor trouble. Shortly before race time, it was
officially announced that Slo-Mo V would not run in the race. She had not
qualified before her accident, and was unable to qualify or run the day of the
race. This left one Sayres’ boat in the race, Slo-Mo-Shun IV.
Arrayed against the Sayres’ craft were five Detroit boats, Jack
Schafer’s Such Crust V, a Slo-Mo type boat, driven by Bill
Cantrell; her qualifying speed was 96.9 m.p.h.; Such Crust III; a
twin-engine in tandem "monster" measuring 34 feet by 13 feet 8 inches, driven by
Chuck Thompson for Jack Schafer, with a qualifying mark of 93.6 m.p.h.; Miss
Great Lakes II, owned by Albin Fallon and driven by Dan Foster, with a
qualifying speed of 92,9 m.p.h.; fourth boat was Gale II, Joseph
Schoenith’s Dan Arena designed 30-footer driven by his son, Lee, and with a
qualifying mark of 90.9 and the fifth boat was Miss U.S., owned by George
Simon. This latter boat is a brand-new Arena creation, but with a number of
"bugs" in her yet to be ironed out. She was dogged by mechanical troubles during
qualifying week and raceday; she finally qualified early Sunday morning, August
9, race day, at 88 plus m.p.h.
An estimated 200,000 spectators, on the shores of the lake, and
aboard approximately 1,000 spectator-yachts moored to the log boom on the
backstretch side of the course, set up a great cheer when Slo-Mo-Shun IV
came out on the course just before the start of the first heat at 2:20 P.M. With
Slo-Mo V out of the race, it was up to Slo-Mo IV to keep the Gold
Cup trophy in Seattle; and pitted against her were five very good boats from
Detroit.
All six boats made a conventional start around the course, in
the first heat, no boat electing to make a run through the pontoon bridge
opening at the north end of the course. As the boats roared up to the starting
line, Joe Taggart had Slo-Mo IV in first place; the gun went off about
two seconds before the boat crossed the line, and the race was on. Miss Great
Lakes II was a good second, while Such Crust V was third; then
followed Miss U.S., Such Crust III and Gale II.
The race was only seconds old when the first boat dropped out.
This was Miss Great Lakes II; she conked out in the south turn, first
lap, when her drive shaft sheered off clean, just aft of the strut. The same
boat had conked out in almost the same place in last year’s race. As things
turned out, the boat was all finished for the day, leaving five boats racing.
Meanwhile, Slo-Mo-Shun IV, coming out of the south turn,
was stepped up by Taggart, and it was a beautiful thing to watch the great boat
respond, and still be under wraps. Such Crust V was in second place,
Gale II third, but at the start of the second lap, Gale II passed
Cantrell for second place, Such Crust V then dropping back to third.
Such Crust III, doggedly held on to fourth place, while Miss U.S.,
unable to make much of a showing due to troubles, remained in fifth place. These
positions, held until the end of the first heat. Taggart, having worked out a
satisfactory lead, was content to maintain his position, and did not push the
boat too much, but even so, Slo-Mo IV’s first heat average speed of
95.268 m.p.h. turned out to be the fastest heat speed of the day.
Lee Schoenith in Gale II turned in a fine mark of 93.649
m.p.h. first heat average speed, but it appeared obvious that if Gale II
had pressed harder, Taggart would have poured on more coal to keep Slo-Mo IV
in front. Outstanding in the first heat, and during the entire race, was the
fine driving turned in by Lee Schoenith in Gale II. Many times he
"picked" Slo-Mo IV on the turns, only to lose his gain as Taggart used
the Sayres’ boat’s terrific acceleration to move out comfortably in front once
more.
Taggart’s fastest lap in the first heat was the first lap, at
101.956 m.p.h., largely due to that sizzling burst of speed in the backstretch.
First heat results: First, Slo-Mo-Shun IV, 18m:53.64s.
400 points; second, Gale II, 19m:13.24s, 300 points; third, Such Crust
V, 20m:14.74s. 89.000 m.p.h. average speed, 225 points: fourth, Such
Crust III, 20m:47.42s, 86.6 m.p.h. average speed, 169 points; and fifth,
Miss. U.S., 25m:48.4.1s, 69.7 m.p.h. average speed, 127 points.
One other feature of the first heat was the lapping all other
boats, of the slower-running Miss U.S. Despite the slow time turned in by
Miss U.S., most experts agreed that dual boat was being properly and
wisely driven.
The second heat of the Gold Cup provided one of those surprises
which make the race so interesting: Slo-Mo-Shun crossed the starting line
in last place. The Sayres hydro was driven in this heat by Lou Fageol, at
Taggart’s invitation. Fageol, finding his projected lane to the starting line
blocked by another boat, was temporarily boxed in. Both Slo-Mo IV and
Miss U.S. made their starts through the bridge opening—the others swinging
around the north turn conventionali,- The order at the starting line, second
heat; was Such Crust III, Miss U.S., Such Crust V, Gale
II and Slo-Mo IV.
Slightly chagrined as Slo-Mo-Shun IV took her first
wakes, Fageol went to work, and by the time he had reached the south end of the
course, he had passed all boats except Such Crust V. He pulled back on
the throttle, and Slo-Mo IV caught Cantrell’s boat in the backstretch.
Cantrell almost simultaneously was out of the heat, his boat having shed her
propeller.
Fageol discovered that Gale II was not to be taken for
granted, at the south turn, second lap, when Schoenith overtook him and had had
a lead of roughly 100 yards. Slo-Mo IV obviously had a bad turn. However,
by the time Gale II passed the official barge, third lap, Fageol had
Gale II’s lead down, and in the backstretch, same lap, Slo-Mo IV went
into the lead, and remained there until the finish of the second heat. Once the
Sayres boat had a lead the craft was not unduly pushed, for the drivers were
taking no chances on the race.
Fageol held his distance pretty well until the fifth lap when
Slo-Mo IV lapped Miss U.S. on the north turn by the pontoon bridge.
Gale II did the same thing in the sixth lap at the same turn. Turning
point in the race occurred in the seventh lap, second heat (there were only
eight laps to a heat) when Gale II was forced to slow down with a broken
cooling line. Fageol had Slo-Mo IV out in front, and only mechanical
trouble apparently could keep him from . . . [text missing]
[Reprinted from Motor Boating, September 1953]
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