1954 International Cup
Pasquotank River, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, October 3, 1954

Speed Boat Race is Won by Gale V
Schoenith Craft is First at Elizabeth City — 7-Liter Record Set by Byers
By Clarence E. Lovejoy

Speed Boat Race is Won by Gale V Gale V Wins at Elizabeth City

Elizabeth City, N.C., Oct. 3 [1954] — America's newest speed-boat racing power, Joseph L. Schoenith, today carried back to Detroit another major trophy for the super-powered Gold Cup or unlimited class.

Schoenith's Gale V, steered by skillfully by his 25-year-old son, Lee, on the Pasquotank River, captured the first running of Elizabeth City's International Trophy Race.

Gale V won the first two thirty-mile heats at speeds better than a mile-and-a-half a minute under perfect water conditions. The winner placed second in the third heat to gain 1,100 points.

Wild Bill Cantrell, winner of the President's Cup last month on the Potomac in Gale IV, was second with 925 points. Cantrell took the final heat at 91.93 miles an hour, was second in the first heat, which Schoenith won at 92.497 m.p.h., and a third in the second heat which also won by Lee at 93.496 m.p.h.

The second heat was also the day's fastest. Gale V covered the first three-mile lap with an average speed of 95.238 m.p.h. The average for the three heats of the race was 92.791 m.p.h., which is a commentary on the excellent racing conditions.

Major Horace Dodge's My Sweetie Dora, driven by Jack Bartlow, was third with 750 points. Dora was the runner-up in the second heat and had a third place in each of the other two tests.

A new world record went into the archives in a pre-dawn time-trial this morning. George Byers, Jr. of Columbus, Ohio piloted his Miss De Sota, to an average speed of 115.263 m.p.h. This replaced his own record of 114.66 m.p.h. made last week

Also early this morning, the gray-haired president of the American Power Boat Association, Merlyn Culver of Dayton, Ohio, became eligible for the 100-Mile-an-Hour Club.

Using the astoundingly fast Sagana, a 266-cu.-in. boat owned by Franklin Foulke of Essex, Md., Culver was timed in one direction at 107.463 m.p.h. and in the other at 105.88 m.p.h. for an average of 106.672 m.p.h.

(Reprinted from the New York Times, October 4, 1954)

[The race average for Gale V was 92.759 mph. --LF]

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