1950 Detroit Memorial
It’s My Sweetie First All the Way in Every Heat of the Memorial Race
My Sweetie Cleans Up in Memorial
Dodge Boat Sets Record for Classic
By Tommy Devine
Such Crust And My Darling (Left) Following In Her Wake
My Sweetie made every mile a winning one as she established a record to win the third running of the Detroit Memorial.
Lou Fageol Gar Wood Horace Dodge
Wood offers congratulations to driver, owner of My Sweetie
The trim, smooth-running speedboat of Horace Dodge swept ah three heats to win the Memorial with ease. For the full 45-mile rout?. Bill Cantrell and little Lou Fageol. who shared the piloting job. were able to look back over their shoulders at the contending fleet of five rivals.
Cantrell drove the first two heats. Then a chest ailment, a recurrence of an injury suffered in a spill two weeks ago in Delphine X. forced him out of the race. Fageol. who relieved him in the Gold Cup last week, took over and completed the winning effort.
My Sweetie established a race record for the Memorial by negotiating the three 15-mile laps at an average speed of 75.293 miles per hour. The former mark of 73.665 mph was set a year ago when Stanley Dollar’s Skipalong took the
The heat record of 77.472 mph. which Danny Arena set in Such Crust I in 1949. withstood My Sweetie’s assault only because the Dodge craft never was pushed. The fastest heat Saturday was the second, when Cantrell averaged 75.841 mph.
Danny Foster, piloting Jack Schafer's old reliable Such Crust I. was second in all three heats. Foster had the only boat capable of even staying close to My Sweetie.
Guy Lombardo’s easy running, but out-powered, Tempo VI took third place on a point basis, with young Andy Marcy, of Springfield. Ill., finishing fourth in his new creation. My Darling.
The fifth and last boat was D. Cameron’s Peck Astraea, which went the full route but never was in contention.
Al Fallon’s Miss Great Lakes competed in the first heat, but then was through for the day.
The Memorial lost considerable of its appeal when the Gold Cup winner. Slo-Mo-Shun, was scratched. The race’s prestige took another whack when Walter and Roy Dossin’s widely heralded new Miss Pepsi failed to get to the starting line.
Miss Pepsi had been impressive in shake-down trials during the week, but then developed trouble with her bearings and had to be withheld.
With those two highly-touted rivals sidelined. My Sweetie had everything her own way. She was first across the starting line in every heat and then-made the field ride in her wash the entire route.
Neither Cantrell or Fageol ever was forced to let her out in order to master the rivals.
In the first lap of the opening heat. Cantrell gunned My Sweetie around the three mile course at 79.464 mph to open up a commanding lead. That was the fastest lap of the entire race.
Once in front of the field Cantrell kept My Sweetie rolling only fast enough to stay out of trouble. He won the heat by a full mile from Such (’rust.
Foster in the Jack Schafer entry in turn was another mile in front of Tempo and the rest of the field was strung out.
The second heat was the best of the race. Whereas Foster had been able to push Such Crust I at only 71.228 mph in the opening heat, he stepped her up to 75.065 mph in the second. As a result, he finished only approximately 100 yards to the rear of My Sweetie, which posted an average of 78.841 mph.
The third heat was all My Sweetie, as Fageol followed the Cantrell procedure and raced in front all the way. He averaged 75.431 mph as against the 73.325 mph mark posted by Foster in Such Crust I.
The chop didn’t bother the unlimited craft in the Memorial, but caused extremely rough going for boats in the other classes.
Bob Bogie, of Saranac Lake. N. Y., in his Blitz III took top honors in the 225 class. Division I by winning both heats. Bill Muncey, of Detroit, was second in his Mi-Son and third place went to B. H. Markowicz. of Detroit, in Baby Tampa.
The second heat of this race resulted in the only mishap of the regatta program. The Bee Jay, owned by Claude Greiner, of Detroit, and driven by Bob Ryberg, turned over on the turn at the lower end of the course. Ryberg was unhurt.
Detroiter John Kress, in his Miss Kress, won the 225 Division II event. One heat decided this event after the first heat was declared “no contest” when all boats which finished “cut” on a buoy in the opening heat. Ray Smith, Jr., of St. Louis, was the runner up in his Stinger.
W. A. Ritner, of Marion, Pa., swept the 135-cubic-inch class in his Wa-Wa with Detroiter Tommy Gore second in Miami Boy.
Joy, piloted by Amato Tanael, of Washington. D. C., won both heats of the 48-cubic-inch class. John Casey, of Detroit, was the runner-up in his Shay-Lay-Lee.
--- July 30, 1950