1952 Steel Cup

Cantrell Pilots Such Crust IV to Victory in the Steel Cup Speed Boat Regatta

New Craft Sweeps Pittsburgh Heats

Such Crust Wins Two 15-mile Tests — Third Cancelled for Lack of Competition

My Sweetie in Collision

Dodge's Boat is Disabled on First Lap and Bon Voyage Gains Runner-Up Prize

by Clarence E. Lovejoy

Pittsburgh, June 7 [1952] — A new speed-boat creation, meeting its first test of the season, won the Steel Cup today as hundreds of thousands of western Pennsylvanians lined the banks of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers and thronged the river city's bridges.

It was the shiny red Such Crust IV, owned by the Detroit sportsman and bakery executive, Jack Schafer, and driven by the leaden-footed Wild Bill Cantrell, formerly of Louisville but now an adopted Detroiter.

Such Crust's victory had some hollow sounds, but it came with only about a half-hour of tuning up for this new unlimited hydroplane that so far has cost close to $100,000.

Schafer's ultimate ambition is to capture the Gold Cup at Seattle in August. Indeed, with its high stern stabilizer, his boat looks like the Gold Cup champion, Slo-mo-shun V, and throws the same kind of a rooster-tail spray.

Third Heat Cancelled

Cantrell piled up 800 points in two fifteen-mile heats. The third heat was cancelled because of no competition. The expected entry from Detroit of the Dossin Brothers' Miss Pepsi, winners of the Steel Cup a year ago with another Pepsi, failed to arrive due to a motor breakage a week ago that could not be repaired.

Such Crust's main rival today was a new gold cup craft with a familiar old name, My Sweetie, owned by Major Horace E. Dodge, named as a gesture to his mother and driven today by a Detroit friend, Al D'Eath. But My Sweetie was out of action before the first lap on the first heat in one of the strangest mishaps in speed boat annals.

Coming up astern and evidently trying to pass Such Crust, D'Eath's My Sweetie collided with the leader, then swerved toward midriver, catapulting D'Eath into the stream. A gash out of the planking ruined My Sweetie's chances for the rest of the regatta and she was beached for later repairs.

Cantrell went on to finish the heat alone because of the disqualification of an outclassed seven-liter craft, Gene Merentette's Bon Voyage, and was clocked in the surprising good time of 67.05 miles an hour. He came out from the pits for the second heat, also leading home Bon Voyage and bettering his time to 68.38 m.p.h.

Has Post-War Allison

Such Crust IV is a hull-and-design creation of Les Staudacher of Bay City, Mich., and has one of the post-war Allison Aircraft engines from the General Motors affiliate factory at Indianapolis. These post-war power plants deliver close to 1,850 horsepower, substantially more than the 1,500 used in the Air Force bombers during World War II.

* * *

Now three years old and thriving lustily, this Steel Cup regatta has begun to attract nation-wide excitement among the speed boat pilot daredevils. It is one of the highlights of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce's annual "welcome Week" profusion of events. The Chamber schedules novelties unknown in other parts of America, such as a rivet-throwing contest, an aerial treasure hunt with dozens of planes and normally a race between two of the great puffin stern wheels, one representing the United States Steel Company and the other its rival, Jones and Laughlin Steel Company.

But the steel strike for the past week has made a different Pittsburgh. the two-boat race of stern-wheelers had to be cancelled and as recompense the regatta throngs saw perhaps for the first time a smoke-free city. When steel mills close down so do other Pittsburgh factories and the city's three rivers that converge near the golden triangle, historical site of old Fort Pitt, were practically clean blue and free from driftwood and factory sludge.

Final Results
Steel Cup Unlimited Class
First Heat 15 miles
1 G-7 Such Crust IV William J. Cantrell Detroit
Winning Time 13:25 1/5 Speed 67.05 m.p.h.
My Sweetie, Al D'Eath collided with Such Crust on the opening lap and did not finish
Bon Voyage, Gene Merentette, Detroit, disqualified for cutting a buoy
Second Heat 15 miles
1 G-7 Such Crust IV William J. Cantrell Detroit
2 H-2 Bon Voyage [7-litre] Gene Merentette Detroit
Time 13:09 3/5, Speed 68.38 m.p.h.
Final Point Score
1 Such Crust IV 800
2 Bon Voyage [7-litre] 300

 

(Reprinted from the New York Times, June 8, 1952)