1950 National Sweepstakes
& Red Bank Gold Cup
Sarant, Lombardo Win Initial Regatta Heats
By Charles A. Johnston
Red Bank.—An unusually small number of entries which, surprisingly, produced several keen races yesterday marked the opening of the eighteenth annual National Sweepstakes regatta before 12,000 people on the Navesink river.
With Horace E. Dodge’s defending Sweepstakes champion, My Sweetie, an advertised starter, among the missing, George E. Sarant, Freeport. L. I., auto dealer, whistled to victory in his Etta in the regatta feature’s 10-mile first heat. The final heat will be raced today at 2 p m. as the two-day race program closes.
Guy Lombardo, the music master who won the 1946 trophy, scored a second to Etta in his Tempo VI in the Sweeps heat and then, in the best race of the day, scored a 100-yard win over the Sarant entry in the 10-mile first heat of the Red Bank Gold Cup. The Cup's final heat will be run off today at 5 p m.
Only four boats came out for the Sweepstakes, and one of these, Daniel J. Murphy’s Dee-Jay V, couldn’t get started for the heat. With Norman Lauterbach, Ventnor, at the wheel, the craft was put in shape for the Gold Cup and placed third, a quarter mile off the pace.
4 Boats Capsize
Lombardo's nip and tuck victory was the racing high point of the day. But competition was also spirited among the outboards. The latter provided most of the day’s thrills as four boats capsized and had to be towed to the pits by coast guard craft petroling the course. There were no Injuries, however.
Winner of the 1949 Harwood trophy in the Race Around Manhattan. Etta, a gun-metal gray-three-year-old boat, is powered by an Allison motor. A supercharger propels it thru the water with a distinct whistle, not unlike a fire alarm sounding in the distance. Sarant reported his boat, which he said had been developed from a former outboard motorboat. was entirely rebuilt after the Harwood victory because of the severe beating it had absorbed
Sarant, driving his own boat, posted the best time of the day. He was clocked at 72.964 m p h. average for the Sweepstakes, far below My Sweetie's Sweepstakes record of 87.464 last year. Lombardo. winning the Gold Cup heat, was recorded at 71.598 m.p.h. average.
Commodore Joseph C. Irwin, of the sponsoring regatta association, said absence of Dodge’s boat, and his driver, Bill Cantrell—as well as most of the other 14 boats that had been announced as Sweeps entries —was a surprise to him. He said that a wire from Mr. Dodge Friday night, stating he had no boat in condition to race, was his first notice that My Sweetie would not defend the Sweeps trophy.
There were other disappointments, too, including the size of the crowd, which was about half the usual turnout. Where in other years about 500 varying size craft gathered around the two-and-a-half mile course, only about 300 were on line yesterday. Riverside lawns, however, attracted large numbers of spectators.
In the first heat of division one 225-cubic-inch hydroplanes, racing for the Mexican Good Will trophy, only one starter went over the line. There were no entries for division two of the class. In other years, more than a dozen could be expected in the two divisions.
Van Blerck Wins
Joe Van Blerck, Freeport, L.I., formerly of Fair Haven, who won the Sweepstakes in 1948 In a 225 he called the Aljo VI, copped the seven-litre class first heat, also a one boat race. In his Aljo. He raced third in the Sweepstakes heat and then conked out while ridfhg fourth on the second lap of the Gold Cup heat.
One world's record was set in the 17-race opening day as Bob McAllister, of Ventnor, tn Yankee Boy broke his boat's month-old mark for 48-cublc-inch inboard runabouts Al Naumann set a mark of 43.968 last month and yesterday It was raised to 47.319 m.p.h. The boat owner turned the craft over to Naumann In July when McAllister was called to National Guard duty with his Pennsylvania unit.
Three shoremen took a good share of the regatta laurels. They were Jack Van Deman. Wanamassa. who won both the 48 and 91-cublc-inch hydroplane class opening heats; Irving Bartlett, Little Silver, who took first place honors in the midget class outboard, on a basis of total points; and Ray Morris, Red Bank, perennial Jersey Speed Skiff victor, who won the opening heat for that class
Morris, who has never lost a speed skiff race in the National Sweepstakes regatta led a Held of four, all of which hailed from Monmouth county. They will return for a final heat thia afternoon.
Bartlett, second to Steve Gaal Garfield, In the first heat, and to Don Whitfield, in the second heat, garnered 600 polnta to win the midget event. Gaal failed to finish the second heat and Whitfield, national record holder for midget outboards, couldn't get started for the first heat.
Van Deman. who holds the 48 class world's record, was virtually unchallenged In the two heats he won. He raced his Why? In the 48 class, beating three other boats and the Red Witch. In the 91s, only one other starter came out for the 91 heat and It did not finish.
Edward S Davis, Keansburg, whose Gold Cup class boat, Stubby VI, broke down before the 1948 Sweepstakes and was wrecked several weeks before the 1949 event, again had hard luck. Tho the boat, driven by the owner's son, Jim, had successful trials Friday, averaging, according to Mr. Davis, 80 miles an hour on a single lap. the boat broke a shaft before returning to the pits. Repairs could not be made In Hine for yesterday’s races, hut Davis said he hopes to race today
Murphy's Dee Jay V, an Apel model boat that upset In the Gold Cup race at Detroit last month; had been rebuilt in recent weeks. It battled the Etta for second place thru two laps of the Red Bank Gold cup event before the Freeport speedster pulled out.
Etta Threatens
Three times Etta made a hid to overtake Tempo, gaining steadily on turns. But Lombardo, bearing down on the straightaway, managed to pull out enough to withstand each new threat.
The duel recalled the dead-heat Lombardo, In Tempo VI and Danny Foster, in Miss Pepsi raced twn years ago in the inaugural of the Red Rank Gold Cup
Sarant, winning the Sweepstakes heat, had little competition, out-distanclng Lombardo by a mile, and the Aljo by two miles Before he race. Sarant disclosed that the Etta's gear box, which broke up and kept her out of the Detroit Gold Cup racing, had been patched but that be couldn't guarantee how far the boat would go.
--- August 6, 1950