1951 APBA Gold Cup
Lake Washington, Seattle WA, August 4, 1951


Statistics

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

August 4

3 Mile Course

Lake Washington

30 Mile Heats

Seattle, Washington

90 Mile Race

 

No.

Entry

Owner

Comp. Lap

Qual.

Race

1.

U-3

My Sweetie

Horace Dodge

 

71.960

2.

U-27

Slo-Mo-Shun IV

Stan Sayres

 

90.462

3.

U-37

Slo-Mo-Shun V

Stan Sayres

97.826

91.370

4.

U-51

Gale II

Joe Schoenith

 

84.705

5.

U-99

Miss Pepsi (2)

Walter Dossin

97.560?

100.500

6.

G-2

Hurricane IV

Morlan Visel

 

90.067

7.

G-31

Hornet (3)

Horace Dodge

 

82.129

8.

G-15

Quicksilver

Orth Mathiot

 

68.040

9.

G-66

Dee Jay V

Daniel Murphy

 

10.

G-98

Gold'n Crust

Jack Schafer

 

81.620

11.

G-99

Such Crust I

Jack Schafer

 

93.348

 

 

Heat One

Driver

Points

Speed

1.

Slo-Mo-Shun V

Lou Fageol

400

91.766

2.

Hornet

Bill Cantrell

300

81.588

3.

Slo-Mo-Shun IV

Ted Jones

225

79.946

4.

Gale II

Lee Schoenith

169

75.901

5.

Hurricane IV

Morlan Visel

127

71.343

6.

Quicksilver

Orth Mathiot

95

63.829

7.

My Sweetie

Horace Dodge

71

58.475

8.

Miss Pepsi

Chuck Thompson

DNF

 

9.

Such Crust I

Danny Foster

DNF

 
 

Heat Two

Driver

Points

Speed

1.

Slo-Mo-Shun V

Lou Fageol

400

89.977

2.

Hornet

Danny Foster

300

85.673

3.

Slo-Mo-Shun IV

Ted Jones

225

84.955

4.

Hurricane IV

Stan Dollar

169

81.373

5.

My Sweetie

Walt Kade

127

80.808

6.

Gale II

Lee Schoenith

95

69.390

7.

Miss Pepsi

Chuck Thompson

DNF

 
 

Heat Three

Driver

Points

Speed

1.

Slo-Mo-Shun V

Lou Fageol

(400)

 

2.

Slo-Mo-Shun IV

Ted Jones

(300)

 

3.

My Sweetie

Walt Kade

(225)

 

4.

Gale II

Lee Schoenith

DNF

 

5.

Quicksilver

Orth Mathiot

DNF

 

6.

Hurricane IV

Stan Dollar

DNF

 

7.

Hornet

Danny Foster

DNF

 

After the Quicksilver tragedy which occurred at the beginning of her third lap, it was several laps before the flares stopping down the race were fired. At the time the leading Slo-mo-shun V must certainly have completed five laps. Under new rules adopted in 1955 heat three would have been called complete since the leader had done 15 of the 30 miles. The flares were inadequate to stop the heat. At the time the heat was finally stopped Slo-mo-shun V had completed 8 laps with Slo-mo-shun IV and My Sweetie doing 7 laps. )

 

Official Recapitulation

Heat 1

Heat 2

Cum.

Heat 3

Bonus

Total

1.

Slo-Mo-Shun V

400

400

800

DNF

000

800

2.

Hornet

300

300

600

DNF

000

600

3.

Slo-Mo-Shun IV

225

225

450

DNF

000

450

4.

Hurricane IV

127

169

296

DNF

000

296

5.

Gale II

169

95

264

DNF

000

264

6.

My Sweetie

71

127

198

DNF

000

198

7.

Quicksilver

95

DNS

95

DNF

000

95

8.

Miss Pepsi

DNF

DNF

000

DNS

000

000

9.

Such Crust I

DNF

DNS

000

DNS

000

000

 

Under 1955 Rules Recapitulation

Heat 1

Heat 2

Cum.

Heat 3

Bonus

Total

1.

Slo-Mo-Shun V

400

400

800

400

000

1200

2.

Slo-Mo-Shun IV

225

225

450

300

000

750

3.

Hornet

300

300

600

DNF

000

600

4.

My Sweetie

71

127

198

225

000

423

5.

Hurricane IV

127

169

296

DNF

000

296

6.

Gale II

169

95

264

DNF

000

264

7.

Quicksilver

95

DNS

95

DNF

000

95

8.

Miss Pepsi

DNF

DNF

000

DNS

000

000

9.

Such Crust I

DNF

DNS

000

DNS

000

000

The winning Slo-mo-shun V was credited with a lap of 108.663 m.p.h. Originally the speed of the Slo-mo V's was believed to be 97.826 m.p.h. However Referee Mel Crook upon inspection of the timing sheets discovered the error and also that Slo-mo-shun V had done 108 m.p.h. Also discovered was that Miss Pepsi had turned a lap of 108.330 in the first heat before expiring.

When advised of his 108 m.p.h. lap Slo-mo V driver Lou Fageol stated that he doubted he drove such an uneven race in the first heat — his heat average was only 91 m.p.h. If the 108 m.p.h. laps are true the lap record went up 22 m.p.h. in the space of one year. Certainly an incredible performance by Slo-mo-shun V when it is realized that the course was relatively calm in Detroit for the 1950 Gold Cup.

Incredible is a good word for the allegedly 108 m.p.h. laps. In 1952 both Slo-mo-shun V and Miss Pepsi had more horsepower at their disposal on a similarly calm course and in a replay of their 1951 duel the best the Pepsi could do was 103.927 with Slo-mo-shun V checking in at 102.837. The difference between 1951 and 1952 was that in the former year Miss Pepsi went dead half way through the heat while in the latter Slo-mo-shun V expired half way through the 30 miles. In addition in qualifying for the 1951 race Miss Pepsi turned a lap of 104.247 and in 1952 did a lap of 104.046. Slo-mo-shun V did three unofficial laps of 103 m.p.h. in 1951 while doing a lap of 104.651 in 1952. Thus it is very unlikely that the 108 m.p.h. laps are true. It is much more likely that the originally announced 97.826 is accurate.

There is about 11 seconds difference between the laps of 108 and 97. In the pressured atmosphere of timing a race taking a reading off a watch indicating the first lap so that the watch can be used in timing the third lap can be done in error. This is probably what happened at the 1951 Gold Cup.

[Statistics and comments from Greene, V.1]


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