1947 Mark Twain Trophy
Boat Races At Hannibal July 6
The country's fastest and best inboard boat racing drivers, 14 of whom have already filed their entries, will pilot specially built racing boats at speeds up to 90 miles an hour in the Mississippi Valley Power Boat Association Regatta to be held on the Hannibal riverfront, Sunday, July 6, beginning at 1:30 o'clock in the afternoon.
Officials of the Hannibal Boat Club and the Lions Club are spending $4,500 to bring the big time boat races to Hannibal ana a crowd of 20,000 spectators is expected to be on hand when the races get under way.
A total of 12 heats on a one and two-thirds mile long oval to be laid out in the Mississippi river just below the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge.
Climax of the program will be a speedy "free-for-all final" event when most of the regatta entries are expected to battle it out over two neats of ten miles each for the new "Mark Twain Trophy" and a $300 first prize. Second prize will be $150 and third $50.
Entries already received include Jack Cooper of Kansas City, well known big time race driver, who is in his 70s and still pilots his sleek racing craft. He has entered three of his fastest boats in the Hannibal regatta and may personally pilot each of them.
Another entry Is E. D. "Hud" Weeks of Des Moines, Iowa, whose fast and powerful Voodoo is a former holder of the world's inboard speed record of 88.8 miles an hour in 1940. Boats have been entered in the Hannibal regatta from as for away as Dayton, Ohio, and Pacific Palisades, California.
Many of the racing craft are powered by stock automobile engines and average from 11 to 18 feet in length and 4 to 4½ feet in beam. The Hannibal regatta program will follow on the heels of a July 4th regatta at Davenport, Iowa and many of the boats entered in the Davenport race are expected to enter the Hannibal races two days later.
(Reprinted from The Palmyra Spectator, July 2, 1947)