1958 APBA Gold Cup
Lake Washington, Seattle WA, August 10, 1958
Hawaii Kai Captures Gold Cup;
Miss Thriftway, Patrol Boat Sink in Crash
Winner Finishes First in 3 Heats
Regas Drives Hawaii Kai to Hydroplane Laurels -- Crash Injures Six
|
SEATTLE, Wash, Aug. 10 [1958] (AP)-Jack Regas rode a pink flash of lightning called Hawaii Kai to victory today a Gold Cup speed-boat regatta marred by a spectacular accident which sank the 1957 winner, Miss Thriftway.
The ninety-mile Gold Cup race was contested in three thirty-mile heats on colorful Lake Washington. It was in the second beat that Miss Thriftway, driven by Bill Muncey, came to grief.
.jpg) |
Miss Thriftway, rudderless and helpless, tore into a forty-foot Coast Guard picket boat like a torpedo and both sank. Muncey and five Coast Guard crewmen, were injured.
Muncey was plucked from the water by a Coast Guard helicopter two minutes after the accident and was lifted to shore. He was found to have only cuts and bruises when examined at a hospital. None of the Coast Guardsmen was injured seriously.
The spectacular accident was witnessed by an estimated 500,000 persons.
After a delay of an hour, the first section of the second heat was restarted with four boats in the line-up.
Regas' time of 103.481 miles per hour set a record for the race. It bettered Muncey's 1957 mark of 101.9798.
Bonus for Fastest Heat
Regas picked up all the available points, garnering 1,200 for three heat victories, a bonus of 400 for the fastest heat, and another 400 for the best over-all time -- a total of 2,000 points.
The Kai is owned by Edgar Kaiser, Oakland CA industrialist, but he turned her over to his crew for racing. She won her last five races of 1957 but this fifty-first Gold Cup was her first race of 1958.
Coral Reef, a Tacoma bolt driven by Harry Reeves finished second with 1,000 points. Miss Burien, Seattle, was disqualified in the final heat for hitting a buoy after apparently winning third place.
Gale V of Detroit moved to third with 636 points. Miss Burien finished fourth with 450 and Miss Spokane fifth with 394.
Two boats which qualified for the final heat, Maverick and Gale VI, were not around at the finish. Maverick, standing third behind Kai and Coral Reef after two heats, couldn't get out of the pits to start the final thirty-mile dash. Gale VI led at the start of the final test, but got only around the first turn before supercharger trouble forced her out.
Miss Burien posted the day's fastest lap, setting it race record of 118.68 miles an hour for one trip around the three-mile course.
Second Narrow Escape
Muncey's brush with death was his second in less than a year. He narrowly escaped when the original Miss Thriftway cracked up on the Ohio River at Madison, Ind., in a regatta last fall.
The six boats in the heat had got off to a tightly-bunched start and were in a jam at the first turn of the course when Miss Thriftway crashed the patrol boat.
Muncey was thrown into the water. Flares fired from the official barge and by officials on the south turn stopped the race at that pnint and sent the remaining five boats back to the pits.
At the time of the accident, three sections of the first head had been run with Hawaii Kai, Miss Thriftway and Pay 'n' Save, all Seattle boats, as the winners.
(Associated Press, August 10, 1958)
Hydroplane
History Home Page
This page
was last revised
Thursday, April 01, 2010.
Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. Email us at wildturnip@gmail.com
© Leslie Field, 1999
