1955 Silver Cup
Tempo VII in Tune; Captures Silver Cup
Lombardo Craft Nips Gale V
Dora My Sweetie 3rd in Final Heat
By Joe Dowdall
The sweetest, music this side of heaven wasn't furnished for Guy Lombardo Saturday by the soothing notes of his famed dance band.
Instead it came from the roar of the Allison engine in his newly-built Tempo VII which won the coveted Silver Cup from 12 rivals on the Detroit River.
Lombardo long has mixed speed and harmony, but this is the first time he managed to win the Silver Cup despite repeated shots in the event.
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One of the old-timers of boat racing, Lombardo has consistently poured large sums of money into the sport. He is the lone Easterner to consistently send unlimited speedboats to Detroit for competition annually.
When he decided his old boats had outlived their usefulness, Lombardo put an estimated $40,000 into Tempo VII, which he had Les Staudacher build last winter.
The curly-haired band leader formerly piloted his own craft, but this season he turned the task over to the talented Danny Foster. Foster provided the wisdom of the choice with a flawless performance in the Silver Cup as Lombardo cheered him from the pits.
In the six-boat final — after three elimination heats and two semifinal heats. Tempo finished a scant 100 feet in front of the Detroit-owned Gale V, piloted by Bill Cantrell. Gale V was the Gold Cup winner at Seattle earlier in the month.
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Horace Dodge’s Dora My Sweetie, the 1954 Silver Cup victor, was third in the finals, with Miss Pepsi fourth. George Simon’s Miss U.S. fifth and the Seattle invader of grocery-executive Willard Rhodes, Miss Thriftway, sixth and last.
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In the final point standings, based on performances in the elimination heats as well as the finals, Tempo rolled up 1,100 points for a commanding edge.
Miss Pepsi and Gale V finished in a tie for second place on a point basis with 869 and then came Dora My Sweetie with 675, Miss Thriftway with 625 and Miss U.S. with 569.
The final 15-mile heat was strictly a two boat race between Tempo and Gale V.
After starting in fourth place, Foster pushed Tempo to within 100 feet of the leading Gale V during the first lap. On the straightaway on the Detroit side of the river during the third lap. Tempo caught Gale.
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Throughout the remainder of the third and fourth laps, the two boats raced virtually side-by-side. Going into the far turn on the fourth lap, Gale V caught some of the spray from Tempo and its engine stuttered momentarily.
Foster seized on the brief motor failure of his rival to push Tempo in front and he kept her there the remainder of the way.
Tempo averaged 94.732 miles per hour for the final 15-mile spin around the three-mile course. Her fastest lap was the fourth when she was clocked at 96.783 mph.
In the semifinal heats. Tempo won her division while Miss Thriftway triumphed in the other half. Tempo averaged 93.408 mph for this journey, while Royal Oak’s Bill Muncey was clocked at only 88.504 mph in Miss Thriftway.
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This was the third major regatta in which Lombardo had started Tempo and it was her first victory.
The sleek New York craft was involved in a collision during the first heat of the Detroit Memorial Regatta when Dodge’s My Sweetie ran wild, and wrecked the fleet.
Then In the Gold Cup at Seattle, Tempo set a qualifying record of 116 mph but was forced out of the race itself when the engine caught fire during the first beat.
This was far and away the most confusing Silver Cup race in history. Originally, the race called for each craft to run five heats of 15 miles each. But when drivers and owners refused to permit more than six boats to start in any one heat, the program had to be changed.
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Finally, three elimination heats were run to accommodate the large field but the process eliminated only one boat.
--- Detroit Free Press, August 28, 1955