1951 Buffalo Launch Club Regatta
Sid Street, Champion, Enters BLC Regatta
To Bring 3 Boats Here
One of the first entries to come in for the Buffalo Launch Club international speedboat regatta on the Niagara River Saturday and Sunday was that of Sid Street, national champion from Kansas City.
Street, who holds the national title in the 225-cubic-inch hydroplane class, won nine first-place prizes at the 1949 BLC event but passed up last year's regatta.
He will bring three of the best speedboats in the world to the Grand Island races. They are the Z-Z-Zip, 225 Division I hydroplane; Whizz, 135-cubic-inch hydroplane, and Gee Whizz, 225 Division II hydroplane. These are the same three in which the Missourian swept all the races he entered here two years ago.
Two of them have set world records. The Whizz set a world mark for its class of. 97.8 miles an hour in 1950 at Salton Sea. The Gee Whizz held the 5-mile world record until this year.
Over the week-end Street gunned Z Z Zip to victory in the traditional regatta at Red Bank. N. J.
Street’s stiffest opposition here is expected to come from Bill Braden of Hamilton, Ont. Braden recently purchased the Belligero from Paul Sawyer and renamed it the Ariel.
Just this month Braden set a 5 mile competitive world record of 81 mph for Division II of the 225 class at Picton. Ont., breaking the old mark held by Gee Whizz.
--- August 15, 1951