1955 APBA Gold Cup

Lake Washington, Seattle WA, August 7, 1955

Statistics

07-Aug 3¾ Mile Course
Lake Washington 30 Mile Heats
Seattle, Washington 90 Mile Race

 

  No. Entry Owner Comp. Lap Qual. Race
1 U-2 Miss U.S. (1) George Simon — 102.092 —
2 U-10 Scooter Too Henry Kaiser — 94.362 —
3 U-11 Rebel, Suh Kirn Armistead — 106.187 —
4 U-22 Breathless Phil Murphy — 95.093 79.144
5 U-27 Slo-mo-shun IV Stan Sayres 107.965 117.391 —
6 U-37 Slo-mo-shun V Stan Sayres — D.N.Q. —
7 U-44 Zephyr Fury Ray Crawford — D.N.Q. —
8 U-45 Miss Cadillac Bud Saile — 96.222 89.895
9 U-54 Gale IV Joe Schoenith — 103.687 —
10 U-55 Gale V (1) Joe Schoenith — 112.732 99.502
11 U-60 Miss Thriftway (1) Willard Rhodes 105.47 103.846 99.365
12 G-13 Tempo VII Guy Lombardo — 116.8 —
13 G-22 Such Crust III (2) Jack Schafer — 100 —

 

  Heat One Driver Points Speed
1 Slo-mo-shun IV Joe Taggart 400 103.159
2 Gale V Lee Schoenith 300 102.469
3 Miss Thriftway Bill Muncey 225 97.232
4 Gale IV Bill Cantrell 169 94.892
5 Miss Cadillac Bud Saile 127 92.167
6 Breathless Jay Murphy 95 82.318
7 Rebel, Suh Russ Schleeh DNF —
8 Tempo VII Danny Foster DNF —
  Heat Two Driver Points Speed
1 Miss Thriftway Bill Muncey 400 100.944
2 Gale V Lee Schoenith 300 99.103
3 Slo-mo-shun IV Joe Taggart 225 97.631
4 Such Crust III Walt Kade 169 96.932
5 Miss Cadillac Bill Braden 127 89.217
6 Breathless Jay Murphy 95 78.099
7 Gale IV Bill Cantrell DNF —
  Heat Three Driver Points Speed
1 Miss Thriftway Bill Muncey 400 99.99
2 Such Crust III Walt Kade 300 98.46
3 Gale V Lee Schoenith 225 97.08
4 Miss Cadillac Bud Saile 169 88.39
5 Breathless Jay Murphy 127 77.201
6 Slo-mo-shun IV Joe Taggart DNF —

 

Heading into the final heat three entries were close in heat points Slo-mo-shun IV and Miss Thriftway with 625 points and Gale V with 600 points. However the most important race was for bonus points since the entry with the fastest race got 400 unanswered points and similarly for the fastest heat. Gale V was ahead of Slo-mo-shun IV by 8 seconds while having 37 seconds on Miss Thriftway for the fastest race. Slo-mo-shun IV had the fastest heat by 9 seconds. Therefore after Slo-mo-shun IV dropped out in the final heat, the question was whether Miss Thriftway could overcome the 37 second deficit — a prodigious task given the fact that Gale apparently had 2 m.p.h. on the U-60.

Entering lap 8 Muncey had a 43 second advantage on the now third place Gale V. At the finish this advantage had been reduced to 32.3 seconds. Miss Thriftway was on a pace to average 101 m.p.h., but came in at about 100 m.p.h. Driver Bill Muncey had dropped his speed by about 10 m.p.h. on the final lap and thus had lost the race by not appreciating the strategic situation.

  Qualifications Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Average
0 Slo-mo-shun V 117.391 117.391 122???? —
1 Slo-mo-shun IV 117.11 115.582 119.575 117.391
2 Tempo VII 116.379 115.2 118.734 116.8
3 Gale V 111.663 112.594 114.117 112.732
4 Rebel Suh 105.882 104.732 108 106.187
5 Miss Thriftway 101.81 103.607 106.299 103.846
6 Gale IV 103.926 103.053 104.086 103.687
7 Miss U.S. 101.8 103 100.75 102.092
8 Such Crust III 99 100 101 100.882
9 Miss Cadillac 96.429 96.085 96.154 96.222
10 Breathless 94.87 94.406 96.017 95.093
11 Scooter Too 92.784 95.137 95.205 94.362

 

Slo-mo-shun V had run her first two qualification laps faster than either Slo-mo-shun IV or Tempo VII. On the final lap according to crew boss Mike Welsch she was on her way to a 122 m.p.h. lap. This was the estimate of the timers. Gale IV had also done a lap of 114 m.p.h. during the testing period.

  Recapitulation Heat 1 Heat 2 Cum. Heat 3 Bonus Total
1 Gale V 300 300 600 225 400 1225
2 Miss Thriftway 225 400 625 400 0 1025
3 Slo-mo-shun IV 400 225 625 DNF 0 625
4 Such Crust III DNS 169 169 300 0 469
5 Miss Cadillac 127 127 254 169 0 423
6 Breathless 95 95 190 127 0 317
7 Gale IV 169 DNF 169 DNS 0 169
8 Rebel, Suh DNF DNS 0 DNS 0 0
9 Tempo VII DNF DNS 0 DNS 0 0

 

[Statistics and comments from Greene, V.1]