1950 Buffalo Launch Club Regatta
Love For Speed, Water Makes Nation’s Top Speedboat Pilots Kin
By Dick Johnston
The top speedboat pilots from all over the nation were beginning to arrive at Grand Island today for the Buffalo Launch Club Regatta tomorrow and Sunday in the Niagara River.
Some got here early enough today to take a workout on the swift Niagara but most will try their boats tomorrow morning before the races start at 2 P. M. The drivers are scheduled for a meeting and get-together this evening at the club.
They live varied lives, these inboard jockeys, the only factor binding them together being their love for speed and of the water.
Probably the best known—to the general public anyhow—of the drivers competing here is Guy Lombardo, the band leader, whose home is in Freeport. He arranges his band’s trips during the Summer so that he can make all the big regattas. He spends the week with his band, then flies to the races to drive his Gold Cup entry, Tempo VI.
Lombardo Boat Rebuilt
The Lombardo boat has been rebuilt this year by Danny Arena, another who will drive here. That’s Arena’s business, building boats and engines. The Detroiter will drive Such Crust II, a Gold Cup boat he constructed for Jack Schafer, and a new 7-litre craft, Peg-A-Lee.
Joe Van Blerck of Freeport, who will drive his Aljo here, also is in the boat business. He tries out marine conversion parts in his racers and if they work properly, he outs them on the market.
Other drivers racing here include Lou Fageol, the Kent, O., industrialist who owns Twin Coach Inc., with a factory in Buffalo; Lou Butler, who owns a machine shoo in Zanesville. 0.; Oliver Etam, farming equipment salesman around Ashland, Ky.
Likes "Old-fashioned" Engines
And Sherm Critchfield, wealthy Florida resident, whose hobby is winning speedboat races with engines that are known in the sport as “old-fashioned”; Merlyn Culver, Dayton, O., engineer, a specialist in souping-up racing engines; Wild Bill Cantrell, who got his start as an auto racer, and still drives in the Indianapolis Speedway 500-mile race.
Also Wilfred Daust of Lachine. Que., who aims to have a boat for each of his 12 children. Daust and one of his sons, Bernard, will drive here in the Canada Maid, in the 225 Division H class and Gooch in the 135 class.
Another family protect is that of the Bogies from Loon Lake. Bob Bogie does most of the driving in his Blitz III. His father, also named Bob, acts as his mechanic. Brother John drove here last year but has just about given up boat racing to devote his time to running his airport at Saranac Lake.
Record Crowd Expected
The Bogie family lived on Long I.oland until Bob was burned badly when the Flying Fortress he was piloting crashed and went up in flames in the European Theater during World War II. After a long stay in the hospital, Bob came home pretty well patched up, and the family moved to Loon Lake. There they took up boat building and racing.
The club is making all efforts to accommodate a crowd expected to be even larger than that of last year, when a group estimated as high as 100,000 watched from the club, from both banks of the river and from pleasure craft in the river.
Fleet Capt. Charley Dusing said that extra help will be on the Grand Island Bridge to facilitate travel and the route will be well posted with directions to the club.
--- August 18, 1950