1953 APBA Gold Cup
Longer Course Proposed
Gold Cup Boat Race May Be Held Over Five-Mile Lay-Out
Seattle, Jan 5 [1953] (UP) The course for the 1953 Gold Cup race ninety-mile classic of speed-boat racing will be lengthened from three miles to five if the American Power Boat Association contest board gives its expected sanction, Lou Fageol, Akron, Ohio sent word today.
Fageol said the association approved the longer course at a recent meeting. The change had been recommended by its rules committee, of which he is chairman.
A five-mile course, for the Gold Cup on Lake Washington next August, would virtually insure a new record time for the race since there would be fewer turns and longer straightaways.
The present race record of 78.215 miles per hour was set by Seattle's Slo-mo-shun IV on the Detroit River in 1950. The thirty-mile heat record of 101.024 is held by Detroit's Miss Pepsi, and was made on Lake Washington last year. The Slo-mo-shun IV won the Gold Cup in 1950 and 1952, and her sister ship, the Slo-mo-shun V, in 1951.
(United Press, January 5, 1953)
[Eventually it was decided to lengthen the course to 3¾ miles. --LF]