1959 APBA Gold Cup
Lake Washington, Seattle, WA, August 9, 1959


Maverick Wins Cup

bullet Hydros Groom for Gold Cup
bullet Your 1959 Time Table for the Seattle Seafair
bullet Gold Cup Race Rules
bullet Miss US I Pacing 13
bullet And Next Year the Trophy Will Have a Cash Value
bullet Maverick Wins Cup
bullet Maverick Wins the Gold Cup
bullet Gold Cup Race Won by Maverick 
bullet How to Win the Gold Cup by Bill Muncey
bullet 1959 APBA Gold Cup - Statistics

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into the lead, while Thriftway was pocketed and ran in fourth place.

Then Maverick, cranky on the turns, missed a buoy and had to circle back. Muncey charged into the lead with Thriftway and — just as he hoped — Maverick chugged in fourth.

But the judges weren’t satisfied. After their two hours of wrangling, looking at movies of the start and holding a drivers’ meeting, they disqualified third-place Miss Spokane for jumping the starting gun. That moved Maverick up to third place, and its holdover time advantage took effect.

As winning driver, Stead was supposed to get a kiss from Miss U.S.A., Terry Huntington. But she got tired of waiting and left. Only a handful of the 250,000 spectators waited.

Same Thing In ‘55

It was the second time in four races that Muncey won the final heat only to lose the race. The same thing happened in 1955, when Gale V beat him on elapsed time.

The Nevada boat’s victory will take the 1960 Gold Cup race away from Detroit and Seattle for the first time since 1947, when the event was held on Jamaica Bay, N.Y. Seattle has been host all but one year since 1951.

Trailing the two leaders in points were Nitrogen (Washington, D.C.) with 714 points; Wahoo (Seattle) 700; Miss Spokane 691; Miss Pay ‘n Save (Seattle) 616; Gale VI 469; Miss U.S. I 400; Miss Seattle 352; Hawaii Kai III, the defending champion, 300; Gale V 240; and KOL-Roy (Seattle) 127. Breathless II and Thriftway Too failed to finish a heat and scored no points.

Wahoo Sets Mark

In addition to Maverick’s race record, one other mark fell. In the first lap of the first heat, Miss Wahoo set a three-mile record of 113.924 m.p.h. That broke her own record of 113.804 set two years ago.

Wahoo won that heat, trailed by Maverick and Miss Thriftway. Miss U.S. I took the second section of heat of heat 1, (101.608 m.p.h.), but neither winner finished the second heat. Thriftway won heat 2-A and Maverick 2-B to give them a wide edge on the field of seven finalists.

Trailing Thriftway in the final were Wahoo, Maverick, Pay ‘n’ Save, Miss Spokane (after her penalty) and Nitrogen.

Detroit’s Troubles

Driver Don Wilson said Miss U.S. blew a cylinder head in its heat victory. He went dead with the same trouble in the third lap of 2-1A, when he was running fourth, and again failed in the final.

Gale VI withdrew from the final because of a blown supercharger. The VI, with Fred Alter at the wheel, finished second to Miss U.S. in 1-B and fourth in 2-lA.

Gale V, with Bill Cantrell at the controls, finished last in 1-1A with a sick engine. Bob Schroeder, of Buffalo, drove her in 2-1B but could do no better than fourth.

Seattle officials announced last night that in lieu of the Gold Cup race they will hold a Seafair Trophy race next summer, as they did in 1956 when Detroit staged the Gold Cup.

Jim Corey, chairman of the Las Vegas group which will stage the Lake Mead race, announced the money offer. He did not say what the prizes will be.

HEAT 1-AWahoo (Mira Slovak) 105.044 m.p.h.; Maverick (Bill Stead) 105; Miss Thriftway (Bill Muncey) 102.437; Nitrogen (Don Cunningham 92.197; Miss Seattle (Dallas Hartz 90.604; Miss Spokane (Norm Evans) 75.059; Gale V (Bill Cantrell). 67.365.

HEAT 1-BMiss U.S. I (Don Wilson). 101.608; Gale VI (Fred Alter) 99.037; Pay ‘n’ Save (Chuck Hickling). 92.584. DNF: Hawaii Kai (Brien Wygle). Thriftway Too, KOL Roy.

HEAT 2-AThriftway. 105.820; Miss Spokane, 102.486; Miss Seattle. 90.323 Gale VI. 69.489. DNF; Miss U.S Wahoo. Breathless II.

HEAT 2-BMaverick, 106.278; Hawai Kai 101.322: Nitrogen. 97.323; Gale V (Bob Schroeder). 93.344; KOL-Roy 87.697: Pay ‘n’ Save, 73.735. DNF Thriftway Too.

FINALThriftway, 102.495; Wahoo 101.819; Maverick, 100.614; Pay ‘n Save, 93.733; Miss Spokane. 90.763 Nitrogen, 85.105. DNF; Miss U.S.

(Reprinted from the Detroit News [?] August 10, 1959)


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