1959 Harmsworth Trophy
U.S. Loss Good For Boating
Gar Wood: "The Harmsworth Trophy, has been in the United States too long (39 years): Canada’s victory is a wonderful thing. It will stimulate interest in the world’s greatest boat race."
That was the instant reaction of the man who spent a fortune to take the trophy from England back in 1920.
Yesterday the Canadian challenger, Miss Supertest III, defeated the U.S. defender and Gold Cup champion, Maverick.
The whole river sounded as if it were in accord with Wood’s view. Sirens sounded, cheers went up and those around the Gar Wood judges’ stand at the foot of Parkview congratulated first Supertest driver, apple-cheeked, 31-year-old Bob Hayward, of Embro, Ont., and then pumped the hands of the victorious boat’s owners, Jim Thompson, the son, and his father, J. Gordon Thompson.
Waves to Winner
Even the losing pilot, Bill Stead, of Reno, Nev., waved his hands in congratulation from his cockpit as Maverick floated powerless on the lower turn when Supertest lapped him on the twelfth lap.
But Canada won the Harmsworth, that England never was able to win back, only after a fierce race, the fastest Harmsworth ever held, and the cleanest from a point of sportsmanship and goodwill. Though she raced the last three laps without competition, the challenger set a new race record of 104.098 miles an hour. So fast were the first 12 laps that she could do that while stroking through the 13th, 14th and final laps at speeds of 95, and 89 m.p.h.
Hits 109 Mark
Supertest had raced those first 36 miles of the 45-mile races at speeds’ ranging from 109.334 m p.h., her second lap when the fight was hottest, to 105.469 m p.h. as things cooled and the Canadian had the, American racer "on her hip," as Bill Muncey described Maverick’s advantage when it won the second race Wednesday to even the match.
Explaining why the Thompsons, Hayward and the Supertest’s whole crew are quite likely the happiest people in the whole British commonwealth today is easier and more pleasant than telling why Maverick became the first U.S. defender in modern history to lose.
Miss Supertest was a better boat in the deciding race than she was in either of the first two. She "inherited" the first race Tuesday when a supercharger part broke for Maverick after the. U.S. boat better had led impressively for 12 laps. Supertest got her pilot
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(Reprinted from the Detroit News, August 1959)
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