1952 APBA Gold Cup
Lake Washington, Seattle WA, August 9, 1952


Latest Dope On The Gold Cup
Gold Cup And Seafair Races

bullet It Looks Like August is Set For Gold Cup Race
bullet Who Stands to Win the 1952 Gold Cup?
bullet Such Crust III Out of Gold Cup
bullet Gold Cup 1904-1952
bullet Miss Pepsi Speeds 103 MPH in Test
bullet Latest Dope on the Gold Cup
bullet Gold Cup Captured by Slo-Mo-Shun IV
bullet Slo-Mo-Shun IV wins 45th Gold Cup Race
bullet Slo-Mo-Shun IV Wins Again
bullet The Gold Cup Stays at Seattle
bullet Cantrell Recovering From Gold Cup Burns
bullet Community Project
bullet Slo-Mo-Shun IV, 118.491 MPH
bullet Statistics
August 4-7: Gold Cup Qualifying Trials, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Lake Washington Gold Cup course.
Friday, August 8: Seafair outboard regatta, Andrews Bay course on Lake Washington.
Saturday, August 9:
The Gold Cup race for the APBA challenge cup; for the Martini-Rossi trophy for fastest heat; for the Aaron DeRoy Plaque for fastest lap Unlimited Hydros. Lake Washington.
Saturday, August 9: Between Gold Cup heats; Limited Classes. Lake Washington course. 48 cu. in. class, 135 cu. in. class, 225 cu. in. class, 266 cu. in. class. (Limited classes register through Gold Cup committee, Seattle Yacht Club, 1807 Hamlin St., until day of races. Then at pits).
Sunday, August 10: 100-mile outboard marathon on course around Mercer Island, Lake Washington.

As this reaches you it is almost time for the 45th running of the world's greatest speed boat classic. The Gold Cup race will start at 1 p.m., Saturday, August 9, on Seattle's Lake Washington.

Eight of the finest unlimited hydros ever assembled will challenge with everything they can put into it, the supremacy of Seattle's two Slo-mo-shuns, IV and V. "Five" is the defending Gold Cup champion. "Four" did it in 1950 and also set the world straightaway record in that year at 160mph plus. Between them they hold every speed record for heat, lap and straightaway. They still hold the Harmsworth trophy and they have held the Gold Cup for two years running.

The big powers of speed racing aren't taking that kind of an all-time challenge lightly. New boats, new power plants, driver realignments, new money will all be poured into the superb Lake Washington course in the greatest, fastest, costliest, toughest speed boat race that has ever been held.

Five hundred thousand people will be on hand in boats and on shore. Newsreels and TV will let millions more have some taste of what it is like.

As this is written in July, in advance of the race, the complete entry list is unavailable. If there are no qualifying-round breakdowns, no last-minute dark-horse entries, no strategy switches the following boats will be on the starting line:

Schaefer and Jacobs' two entries Such Crust III and IV, the Dossin s Miss Pepsi, Al Fallon's Miss Great Lakes [II], Schoenith's Gale II, Visel's Hurricane IV, Sayres' two Slomo's and possibly Horace Dodges' Hornet and My Sweetie. Several others are quite possible. That is the lineup a few weeks before race time.

Horace Dodge still hadn't revealed his plans. My Sweetie is not the ex-Gold Cup champ that raced on Lake Washington in 1951. This is a new craft, with new ideas that has been warming up on eastern- and Middle West waters this Spring and Summer. Hornet was also promised back for another try.

The defending champions: Seattle, the Pacific Northwest and the coast have been bubbling with excitement over these famous craft. All kinds of things have been happening. It looked for a time as though Sayres might have to limit to one entry. The people of Seattle went out and raised enough money to keep both Slo-mo's running. It was a terrific, quick response and thousands of dollars were raised as the people shared in the operation of the boats. Two new engines went into the boats. Each got a new 2000-hp Allison and new gear boxes. They are in great shape for the race.

In the meantime, Sayres announced that Stanley Dollar, member of the famous ship-family, will be one of the Slo-mo drivers along with the famous Lou Fageol. It's quite a driving team. Dollar drove his own Skip-A-Long in the Harmsworth in Detroit in 1950. He was not in the Gold Cup in 1951. Stan Dollar is from San Francisco.

The Schaefer-Jacobs boats: These two entries are ready for business. They are new and haven't had much race testing. Such Crust III and IV are much different from the "Crust" boats in last year's event. They are close copies of the Slo-mo design. "Crust III" has twin Allisons and a terrific beam of 14 feet. The "Four" has an Allison. Bill Cantrell, who drove Hornet last year is now with Jack Schafer and Rex Jacobs and will be at the wheel of one of these boats. Trying for time on the mile straightaway III had a little rudder-flutter trouble. They were getting this ironed out as fast as possible.

Miss Pepsi: Roy and Walter Dossin's Hacker-design. craft wants that cup just as much as anyone. Maybe more. Miss Pepsi has all the effervescence she needs with her twin engines, but still can't get all wound up at the right time to set records and to beat the Slo-mos.

Miss Pepsi has done more racing this season than any of the other craft. Her final racing tuneup for the Gold Cup was the July 4 Detroit Memorial Trophy race. This was her second straight victory in this event. Chuck Thompson was at the wheel. He went the 45 miles at an average clip of 93.197 and his fastest lap went to 97.694. This appears to be the best she has done this year and definitely puts Miss Pepsi into the role of number one contender. Conceivably she will be much tougher on the sharp Lake Washington course. Certainly she will have tougher competition to stretch her out-and besides she will be shooting the works for the Gold Cup. It is doubtful the Dossins would have her at full-speed in the Detroit race just one month before the vital Gold Cup.

Joe Schoenith's Gale II: This little dandy still catches the eyes of those close to speed racing. The big news is that Danny Foster has switched over and will be driving her. He drove "Crust" boats last summer. Gale II is going to be a very tough competitor on the ninth.

From Southern California: Morlan Visel is doing things with Hurricane IV, and brought her to Seattle early to get her in shape, with some changes, for the race. Reliable information has it that Visel timed her in late June at 177 mph on the straightaway. The only triple-threat man in the race-owner, driver and builder-he didn't have Hurricane IV working .too fast last year, but could spring the surprise now. She is definitely faster and improved.

Miss Great Lakes [II]: This Dan Arena-designed and built job, owned by Al Fallon, is a three-point suspension job. She comes the closest to being the dark horse. Much thought of by those that have seen her, with lots of power, she still hasn't recorded much racing time. Many think she will give the Slo-mo's a race. She will probably be driven by Bill Muncey.

My Sweetie: As reported earlier, Dodge is late in entering this boat. None knew early if she would be in the race. She is expected. Al D'Eath, a newcomer to unlimiteds, will drive her if she comes out. He had her in the June 7th race at Pittsburgh. He gave Cantrell and Such Crust IV a run for it, until the two craft bumped and D'Eath was thrown from the boat and broke some ribs. My Sweetie was actually ahead in the first lap. Average speeds for Such Crust IV were in the high sixties for the two heats.

The seventh entry among the challenging boats, and somewhat of a surprise declaration at that was the formal filing for Miss Birmingham. This craft is now owned by Richard Riley of Birmingham, Mich., one of the smaller industrial cities near Detroit.

This craft has done little formal racing this season. Little is known about her current possibilities. But she won fame when she was known as Miss Great Lakes and roared to Gold Cup victory in 1948. She was owned by Al Fallon, who is the current owner and entrant with Miss Great Lakes II.

Statistics: She was built right after the war by Dan Arena, who has had a hand in so many Gold Cuppers. She is 26 feet long, 11-foot beam and has Allison propulsion.

Slo-mo-shun IV raised the world's official speed boat record for the straightaway to a sensational 178.497 mph. Famous owner Stanley S. Sayres himself was at the wheel in the breath-taking dash that beats his own record by more than 18 mph.

It was a dramatic run down and back over the East Channel course on Lake Washington around 8 a.m., Monday, July 7. Elmer Linenschmidt, chief mechanic with the Sayres team, rode in the co-pilot seat.

Slo-mo-shuns' home-city course near Seattle was anything but ideal for the trial. The sun was out, the weather was clear, but a strong North wind put a rough chop on the water and the south end of the course was rougher and white-capped. Many didn't think Sayres would try it that morning.

He brought Slo-mo IV into the course-area about 7:20 a.m., conferred with officials, then went to the North end of the area toward 8:00. Down he came to the start of the one-mile-long course. The ride was rough but the racer looked under control every bit of the way. The long rooster tail flattened out-low and long. She was up around 190 mph. At the half-way point Sayres began to de-accelerate because of the chop. The official time showed 185.567 mph for the dash south. Sayres made a big sweep south of the course.

"It was too rough to run back at the speed I came down," he continued, "but I thought of two years ago when we stood by for five days waiting on the weather and decided right then to complete the run."

Complete it he did. He came back at 171.428 mph to attain the averaged total speed of 178.497 mph.

American power Boat Association rules require that the speed run be made in both directions over the course and the time be averaged.

Here is the way it was run. The closest fraction is used in official figuring:

Down

19.35 sec

(19.4)

185.567 mph

Back

20.95 sec.

(21.0)

171.428 mph

new record 178.497 mph

In these trials Slo-mo-shun IV used stock Mobiloil and Mobil racing fuel, which has been specially developed by General Petroleum engineers.

(Reprinted from Sea and Pacific Motor Boat, August 1952, pp.24-25, 52-53)


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