100 m.p.h. Record for Dossins’ Craft
Miss Pepsi Sets New Mark in Qualifying for Gold Cup Race at Seattle Today

The 1951 Gold Cup Remembered Sayres Readies Boat for Defense of Gold Cup in Seattle Race Nation's Top Racers to Invade Seattle New Slo-Mo-Shun May Be Ready For August Races Can They Beat "Slo-Mo-Shun IV"? Are the Big-name Racing Boats Challenging with Revised Hulls? Just Two Boats Qualify Set Speed-boat Record 100 mph Record for Dossins' Craft Miss Pepsi Chief Threat in Gold Cup "Slo-Mo V" Roars to Gold Cup's Fastest Win Slo-Mo-Shun V Wins Gold Cup At Seattle Pilot and Mechanic Killed As Gold Cup Race Boat Sinks Cup Racer Called a "Runaway" Boat Gold Cup Rules Changed Safety Committee Named Death at Seattle Quicksilver (from This is Hydroplaning) Statistics
Course map for 1951 APBA Gold Cup, Seattle Seafair and Pacific Motor Boat Trophy Races. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.	1951 Pits. Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

Seattle, August 3, [1951] — Chuck Thompson drove the super-powered Miss Pepsi around the three mile Gold Cup course Friday at a record-smashing 100 miles per hour to establish her as the chief challenger to Slo-Mo-Shun IV as the speed queen of the waterways.

Setting a new qualifying standard as it entered the list for today’s Gold Cup, the Detroit-owned Miss Pepsi averaged 104.247 mph on the fastest of its three qualifying laps. Official time was 100.5586 miles per hour for the nine-mile tour.

Shooting at the qualifying record of 90.34 m.p.h. set yesterday by Jack Schafer’s Such Crust, owners Walter and Roy Dossin predicted a 110 m.p.h. run when Miss Pepsi went out on the course.

Miss Pepsi became the sixth boat to qualify. The total of qualifiers rose to eight after Horace Dodge’s Hornet and Jack Schafer’s Gold’n Crust, both of Detroit wound up the days tests.

The Gold’n Crust had motor trouble prior to the test. Finally her steersman, Roy Duby of Detroit, brought her in with a 74.65 average compiled from laps of 79.77, 77.75 and 68.35 miles per hour.

The Hornet qualified with the average time of 82.12 m.p.h. Bill Cantrell of Louisville, Ky., drove the Hornet through four laps in average times ranging from 77.08 to 82.82.

The other boats which have qualified, and their times, are the defending champion Slo-Mo-Shun IV (90.45) and her sister, the Slo-Mo-Shun V, (91.37) both owned by Stanley S. Sayres of Seattle; Hurricane IV (90.06), owner Morlan Visel, Los Angeles; Such Crust (83.34) and Quicksilver (68.04), owner Orth Mathiot, Portland, Ore.

After her terrific show of speed today, Miss Pepsi moved into the role of co-favorite with the two Slo-Mo-Shuns. The Sayres Slo-Mo-Shun IV won both the Gold cup and the Harmsworth trophies last year while Miss Pepsi took the President’s Cup.

The forty-fourth running of the Gold Cup is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon with the first thirty-mile heat starting at 3 p.m. E.S.T. The remaining two heats will be run at two-hour intervals.

With the time flashed by the boats in their qualifying runs this year, a complete lest of new records is almost assured. My Sweetie holds the lap record of 86.2. Slo-Mo-Shun IV holds the hear record of 90.89 m.p.h. and the race record of 78.21. All three marks were set last year at Detroit.

Miss Pepsi is thirty-six feet long and powered by two 1750-horsepower engines. The two Schafer boats are thirty-footers with 2,000-horsepower each. The two Slo-Mo-Shuns have single 1750-horsepower engines. They are twenty-eight footers.

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