1949 Lake Tahoe Championship
Statistics
| August 14 | 3.5 Mile Course |
| Lake Tahoe | 17.5 Mile Heat |
| Tahoe City, Calif.? | 17.5 Mile Race |
| No. | Entry | Owner | Comp. Lap | Race | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | U-20 | Hot Metal | Henry Kaiser | — | — |
| 2. | U-25 | Skip-A-Long | Stan Dollar | — | — |
| Heat One | Driver | Points | Speed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Skip-A-Long | Stan Dollar | DNF | — |
| 2. | Hot Metal | Max Collins? | DNF | — |
The contest was billed as an exhibition. Hot Metal threw a prop and went out of the race in early lap. Skip-A-Long was two laps into the race when her gear box froze which put her in a sinking condition. Unfortunately the boat sank in about 100 yards of water and was never recovered by Stanley Dollar. This was a serious blow to western racing as Dollar had won the right to defend the Harmsworth on the west coast by dint of his victory only two weeks before his boat sank. The Harmsworth Committee went through the motions of surveying potential sites in the Bay Area - one just past the Golden Gate Bridge and another at Lake Clear in northern California, but decided to hold the race in Detroit. Legally the Committee had this right since any prerogative that Dollar had was only on an informal, traditional basis. The Committee gave as their reason that the race would not draw on the west coast without a local boat. Put against the background that the Bay Area was not exactly steeped in Harmsworth history and tradition, this explanation made much sense.
[Statistics and comments from Greene, V.1]