1952 Season Summary

 

Statistics

1 17-Feb Biscayne [Pohl] Miami Gold Cup Miami, Florida
2 07-Jun Steel Cup Pittsburgh, Penn
3 28-Jun Maple Leaf Trophy Windsor, Ontario,
4 04-Jul Henry Ford Memorial Detroit, Michigan
5 13-Jul Tahoe Yacht Club Gold Cup Tahoe City, California
6 02-Aug Cambridge Gold Cup Cambridge, Maryland
7 09-Aug APBA Gold Cup Seattle, Washington
7A. 10-Aug Seafair Trophy Race Seattle, Washington
7B. 16-Aug Buffalo Launch Club Regatta (no Unlimiteds or Gold Cup Boats) Buffalo, New York
8 17-Aug Coast Guard Gold Cup Tahoe City, California
9 01-Sep O.J. Mulford Silver Cup Detroit, Michigan
10 07-Sep Harwood Trophy New York, New York
11 14-Sep National Sweepstakes Red Bank, New Jersey
12 14-Sep Red Bank Gold Cup Red Bank, New Jersey
13 21-Sep Presidents Cup Washington, D.C.
14 28-Sep Imperial Gold Cup New Martinsville, W.Va.
15 12-Oct Indiana Governor's Cup Madison, Indiana

 

  Date Winner Driver
1 17-Feb Miss Great Lakes II Dan Arena
2 07-Jun Such Crust IV Bill Cantrell
3 28-Jun Miss Pepsi (2) Chuck Thompson
4 04-Jul Miss Pepsi (2) Chuck Thompson
5 13-Jul Short Snorter Stan Dollar
6 02-Aug Wee Tommy Tucker Ed Aleksandrowicz
7 09-Aug Slo-mo-shun IV Stan Dollar
7A. 10-Aug [cancelled] [cancelled]
7B. 16-Aug Nitrogen [Class F runabout] Howard Hibbert
8 17-Aug Short Snorter Stan Dollar
9 01-Sep Gale II Danny Foster
10 07-Sep Davy Jones Bill Leiber
11 14-Sep You All Bob Rowland
12 14-Sep You All Bob Rowland
13 21-Sep Miss Pepsi (2) Chuck Thompson
14 28-Sep Dee Jay V Norm Lauterbach
15 12-Oct Wildcatter B.G. Bartley Jr.

 

  Built Boat High Points  
1 1950 Miss Pepsi (2) 945
2 1951 Gale II 585
3 1950 Slo-mo-shun IV 540
4 1952 Such Crust IV 450
5 1951 Hornet-Crust 450
6 1952 Miss Great Lakes II 420
7 1948 Hurricane IV 360
8 1952 Such Crust III 300
9 1951 My Sweetie (2) 240
10 1950 Dee Jay V 40
11 1949 Chaz (2) 40
12 1939 Short Snorter 12
13 1948 Fleur Du Lac 6
14 1951 Slo-mo-shun V 0
15 1949 Miss Supertest 0
16 1949 Hot Metal 0
17 1952 Thunderbolt 0
18 1952 Little Miss Judy 0
19 1951 Guided Missile 0
20 1939 It's A Wonder 0
21 1938 Fury 0
22 1951 Chesapeake Cat 0

 

  Driver High Points  
1 Chuck Thompson 615
2 Danny Foster 264
3 Joe Taggart 255
4 Bill Cantrell 210
5 Stan Dollar 162
6 Morlan Visel 150
7 Lou Fageol 84
8 Walt Kade 72
9 Al D'Eath 72
10 Dan Arena 60
11 Jack Bartlow 60
12 Lee Schoenith 30
13 Norm Lauterbach 20
14 Max Collins 6
15 Bill Braden 0
16 George Zigas 0
17 Charles Klein 0
18 George Davis 0
19 Bob Dawson 0

 

  Winner Crew Chief Designer Builder Engine
2/17 Miss Great Lakes II Al Fallon Dan Arena Dan Arena Allison
6/7 Such Crust IV Bill Cantrell Les Staudacher Les Staudacher Allison
6/28 Miss Pepsi (2) Chuck Thompson John Hacker Les Staudacher Allison
7/4 Miss Pepsi (2) Chuck Thompson John Hacker Les Staudacher Allison
8/9 Slo-mo-shun IV Mike Welsch Ted Jones Anchor Jensen Allison
9/1 Gale II Lyle Ritchie Dan Arena Dan Arena Allison
9/13-14 You All Bob Rowland Henry Lauterbach Henry Lauterbach Ford
9/13-14 You All Bob Rowland Henry Lauterbach Henry Lauterbach Ford
9/20-21 Miss Pepsi (2) Chuck Thompson John Hacker Les Staudacher Allison
9/28 Dee Jay V Norm Lauterbach Arno Apel Ventnor Allison

 

1952

A few months prior to the season a bombshell hit Seattle.

Ted Jones who designed the Slo-mo-shuns and was responsible for recruiting a good part of its crew left Sayres to pursue a career with the Kiekhaefer Corporation. Jones bettered himself financially at a time that there was no prospect of designing and building boats under the aegis of Sayres for other owners.

Against this background Jack Schafer of Detroit brought out two new boats. Both were prop riders. Such Crust III was a twin engine job.designed by Schafer. Driver Bill Cantrell followed his Hornet design with the single engine Such Crust IV. Hornet was not scheduled to be the Dodge camps #1 entry for 1952 with the little 26 foot My Sweetie being shoved to the forefront.

Before the Gold Cup, Miss Pepsi again captured her initial two regattas of the season. However the new Miss Great Lakes II gave her more trouble than her opponents on the eastern circuit in 1951

In the race week qualifying period Such Crust IV turned in some impressive test laps at 100 m.p.h. with Miss Pepsi showing 104 and Slo-mo-shun V 103 as in 1951. Hurricane IV also did 101 m.p.h.

As a result there was no contender that was completely out of the picture as a potential winner although Slo-mo-shun IV's best lap was 94 m.p.h. Miss Great Lakes II reportedly did 105 m.p.h.

Both Slo-mo-shun IV and Slo-mo-shun V's hulls had been modified over the winter and both conked out in the first heat. Slo-mo-shun V led Miss Pepsi for the first four laps as in 1951, but this time she froze up her engine in lap 6 as a result of too much time out of the water to get adequate cooling. Miss Pepsi went on to record 101 m.p.h. for the 30 miles. - 15 m.p.h. ahead of second place Hurricane IV. Such Crust IV who was breaking in a new engine finished third. Back in the pack Miss Great Lakes II and Slo-mo-shun IV dropped out in the second and fourth lap respectively.

Miss Great Lakes II and Slo-mo-shun V were out for good, but Slo-mo-shun IV came out for heat two with Slo-mo-shun V's propeller.

Miss Pepsi got off in front and led down the first backstretch closely followed by Slo-mo-shun IV. Such Crust IV caught fire in the first turn and being significantly charred was out for the day. Then Miss Pepsi blew her gear box in the second turn leaving only Slo-mo-shun IV on the race course. Hurricane IV joined her in due course, but was disqualified for making her start more than five minutes after the gun. Slo-mo-shun IV went on to secure 400 points and had a good chance to win the race since Hurricane IV was the only boat ready to run for the final.

Fortunately for Seattle Hurricane IV did not receive any points for the second heat for if she had she would have led the race with 600 points.and would only have had to finish the final heat to take the race on heat points not to mention the fastest race bonus. As it was the winner of the final heat would win the race since Hurricane IV had run 10 m.p.h. faster in the first heat than Slo-mo IV in the second heat. If neither boat finished Miss Pepsi would win the race by virtue of her record breaking performance in heat one.

Slo-mo-shun IV jumped out in front in heat three and led Hurricane by a couple hundred yards heading into lap 2. The Hurricane IV closed up the gap in lap 2, but the pace became too much for her and she dropped out in lap 3. Slo-mo-shun IV was alone again and went on to take the heat and the race having spent 16 of the 30 laps in solo splendor.

Stan Sayres had planned to go east with one of his boats, but had to bow out due to illness. Miss Pepsi was also out of the Silver Cup since her gear box could not readied in time.so the boating fraternity was going to find out who would win if neither Sayres or the Dossins showed up with an entry.

A leading candidate was eliminated in her first Silver Cup lap when Miss Great Lakes II went dead in the water. Hornet-Crust driven by Slo-mo pilot Lou Fageol beat out Gale II driven by Danny Foster to win the first heat. The new Such Crust III started late and was disqualified .

Hornet-Crust was out for the day with mechanical failure along with Miss Great Lakes II leaving the field to Gale II who went on to take the next two heats. When the race was called due to inclement weather, Gale II was awarded the Silver Cup.

The new Such Crust III had been a difficult boat from her launch in February and was not taken to Seattle. She cracked up in pre-race testing sending driver Roy Duby to the hospital with a broken neck.

Walt Kade replaced Duby, but the Crust III did not perform either at Detroit or later in September at Washington, D.C.

Miss Pepsi came back to the hydro wars and won her third consecutive Presidents Cup. Gale II and Miss Great Lakes had a battle among themselves, but could not touch the Pepsi.

Slo-mo-shun IV raised the mile record by 18 m.p.h. due to her new more powerful Allison engine and won the Gold Cup albeit by "backing in". Miss Pepsi won three of her five races and again had the fastest lap of the year at 103.927 m.p.h. to Slo-mo V's 102.837. Yet by virtue of her twin accomplishment Slo-mo-shun IV had to be the boat of the year even though her best lap was 96.840 m.p.h. about as fast as she was in 1950 and 1951.

[Statistics from Greene, V.1]