1955 Presidents Cup

Miss Pepsi Grabs Lead In Cup Race

By Don Olesen, Staff Reporter

Danny Foster in Tempo VII
REGATTA THRILLER—Danny Foster, piloting band leader Guy Lombardo’s Tempo VII, roars past the judging stand in a cloud of spray doing better than 100 miles an hour. Although Foster set heat and lap records, a balky start during the second heat yesterday placed him fourth in points trailing leader Chuck Thompson of Detroit. The final heat will be run off today.—Star Staff Photo by Francis Routt.

Miss Pepsi, the splinter-shaped speedboat from Detroit, was well on the way to her fourth President’s Cup here yesterday after winning her first two starts on the Potomac.

The reliable veteran, out of retirement after several years, was way ahead on total points in a fleet of nine unlimited-power hydroplanes in the 24th President’s Cup Regatta.

There were four elimination races run yesterday, and each boat competed in two of them. Each driver drew lots to see which boats he raced in his two starts.

Yesterday's six top point winners will stage a final race for the $30,000 trophy at 1:20 p. m. today. Smaller inboard racers in five other classes will compete, too.

Nearly 20,000 watchers on Hains Point and aboard a flotilla of spectator craft watched Chuck Thompson, Pepsi's driver, head for his fourth cup. Under a feeble sun, the Potomac was flat as a millpond and perfect for racing.

But if Pepsi amassed the most points yesterday, the most potent performance was turned in by Tempo VII, the hot new entry of bandleader Guy Lombardo and the 1955 Silver Cup winner.

Tough Luck for Tempo

Pepsi and Tempo didn’t face each other in any heat, although they’ll tangle during the final race today. On her first time out, Tempo smashed the President’s Cup lap (3 miles) and heat (15 miles) records. Driver Danny Foster ran his fastest lap at an average speed of 103.647 m.p.h., his best heat at 100.709 m.p.h. He shattered marks set here in 1954 by Gale IV.

By contrast, Pepsi’s fastest lap was only 99.539 mph., and her fastest heat (her second) 99.189 mph. The Dossin Brothers’ entry won the Cup here in 1950-51-52.

In her second start. Tempo literally was washed out of the race. As she and three other huge speedboats thundered down for the start. Tempo’s engine apparently got a soaking from the mammoth rooster-tail wakes thrown by her competition. She limped late across the start and finished a poor fourth.

Gale V Second

That bad break left Tempo in fourth place at day’s end with a total of only 569 points to Pepsi’s 800.

In addition to Pepsi and Tempo, the six boats qualifying for today’s final race are: Gale V, owned by Detroit’s Joe Schoenith, in second spot with 625 points; Miss Thriftway from Seattle, with 600 points, third; Miss United States, owned by George Simon of Detroit, in fifth place with 525 points, and Horace E. Dodge’s Dora My Sweetie, another Detroit boat, in sixth spot with 394 points.

Eliminated in yesterday's racing were Miss Cadillac, owned by Frank Saile Jr., of Detroit; Schoenith’s Gale IV, which broke an oil line on her first heat and didn’t finish it, and the Breathless from Piedmont, Calif., driven by 22-year-old Jay Murphy, a Fort Belvoir, Va., Army private. Just before her second heat, Breathless backfired, caught on fire. Murphy, unhurt, quickly doused the blaze, but never started.

There was nothing half-hearted about Pepsi’s performance yesterday. On her first heat, she licked her nearest rival — Miss U.S. — by a half mile. On her second start, she lead Gale IV home by more than a mile.

Tempo VII, in her good heat, had a huge finish lead over Seattle’s Miss Thriftway. In Tempo’s bad-luck race. Gale V was an easy quarter-mile winner over Miss Thriftway.

--- Washington Star, September 17, 1955