1954 Mapes Mile-High Gold Cup

Statistics

September 11-12 3 Mile Course
Lake Tahoe 15 Mile Heats
Chambers Lodge, Calif. 45 Mile Race

 

  No. Entry Owner Qual. Comp. Lap Race
1 U-12 Scooter Henry Kaiser 77.088 88.74
2 U-22 Breathless Phil Murphy 78.775
3 G-2 Hurricane IV Bill Stead 87.93 70.576
4 G-8 Short Snorter Stan Dollar 82.49
5 20-H* California Kid Lon Graditi**
6 22-H*** Restless Henry Kaiser
* A photo in Carol Van Etten's Lake Champions: In Pursuit of Tahoe's Racing Title, 1914-1958 shows California Kid bearing the number 20-N. This photo accompanied an article on the 1954 Tahoe racing season. The number 20-H was later used by Galloping Gael. Although the Gael was active in 1954 it is unclear what number she had at that time. --LF

** Other reports give the owner's name as Lou Graditi or Gradite. --LF

*** Jim Sharkey's book Hydro's Who's Who 1946-2013 lists the 6th place finisher as Restless II (32-H). --LF

 

  Heat One Driver Points Speed
1 Short Snorter Stan Dollar 400 80.631
2 Scooter Jack Regas 300 75.84
3 Hurricane IV Bill Stead 225 69.98
4 California Kid George Mattucci 169 66.921
5 Restless Ken St. Oegger 127 62.244
  Heat Two Driver Points Speed
1 Scooter Jack Regas 400 73.629
2 Hurricane IV Bill Stead 300 73.119
3 Short Snorter Stan Dollar 225
4 California Kid George Mattucci 169
5 Breathless Jay Murphy DNF
  Heat Three Driver Points Speed
1 Breathless Jay Murphy 225 56.373
2 Hurricane IV Bill Stead 400 68.76
3 Scooter Jack Regas 300
4 California Kid George Mattucci 169

 

  Recapitulation Heat 1 Heat 2 Cum. Heat 3 Total
1 Scooter 300 400 700 300 1000
2 Hurricane IV 225 300 525 400 925
3 Short Snorter 400 225 625 DNS 625
4 California Kid 169 169 338 169 507
5 Breathless DNS DNF 0 225 225
6 Restless 127 DNS 127 DNS 127

 

(In the final heat Breathless jumped the gun and led the field over the finish line. Her speed for the six laps was approximately 67.647. When boats jump the gun they sometimes let down in their final lap making for a slower average for six laps than for the first five laps. In order to qualify for the event entries were required to do five laps at over 70 m.p.h.)

[Statistics from Greene, V.1]