1956 Harmsworth Trophy Race
Miss Supertest Rarin’ For Harmsworth Try
See Canadian Entry Good Challenger; Getting Tuneup Check at Sarnia
Sarnia — Miss Supertest, this country’s challenge in the Harmsworth Trophy race, is roaring to go.
After six years of hard work and planning, James Thompson, of London, and his son Jim Jr., owners of the boat, feel Miss Supertest is worthy to represent Canada in the August 26 race.
In its last outing, Miss Supertest was victor over seven U.S. unlimited class boats at Picton. Since that time the crew has been busy preparing the craft for the Harmsworth race.
Speed boat experts rate the Canadian entry as the most powerful single-engine unlimited class boat in both the U.S. and Canada. Many agree she is the fastest accelerating racer in competition, despite her 6,000 pounds, 31-foot length and 12-foot beam.
With the years of work and money spent to make Miss Supertest a suitable challenger for the Harmsworth it is hoped by the owners and crew that the only Canadian speed boat will win the trophy which has been in the United States since Gar Wood captured it in 1920.
American who have studied the boat feel she is the best-engineered boat to represent Canada since Commodore Harry B. Greening’s Rainbows of the mid 1920’s, one of which won the Gold Cup, but was disqualified on a technicality.
Built in Sarnia by Les Staudacher, of Kawkawlin, Mich., the challenger is a Ted Jones design. The owners have built their own gear box, their own universal joint, forged their own prop joint and prop shaft, and have cut their own 10-pound propeller wheels out of 185 pound billets of solid steel.
Everything has been built by the owners with the exception of the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine and the hull, but they have had a lot of work to do with both.
Going into the Harmsworth race. Miss Supertest has an impressive record. She has an official straightaway record of 155 miles an hour, and unofficially she has been clocked through the mile distance at better than 170 miles an hour. No other Canadian boat in history has come near these speeds.
William J. Braden, of Hamilton will drive the craft in the Harmsworth races and he is presently working out in the St. Clair River. During the workouts the boat is being prepared for the big race and all those who have worked on her are confident.
— July 28, 1956
Coast May Boycott Harmsworth Race
Speedboats Pointed for Gold Cup
Owners’ Strategy Perils Silver Cup
By Tommy Devine
A boycott of the Silver Cup and Harmsworth Trophy races by West Coast speedboat owners was threatened Friday.
The Silver Cup is scheduled to be raced on the Detroit River Aug. 18, with the Harmsworth set for Aug. 25-27 against the Canadian challenger, Miss Supertest.
West Coast owners like Stanley Sayres, W. T. Waggoner and Willard Rhodes have indicated they may snub the Silver Cup and Harmsworth to concentrate on the Gold Cup. which will be contested Sept. 1.
Although the Harmsworth admittedly is the world’s most famous speedboating trophy and the Silver Cup ranks high in competitive circles, there’s a long-range motive in the Coast owners plan to bypass the two races.
This will be the first Harmsworth race since 1950. It takes a challenge by a foreign nation before the event can be held. The Silver Cup, regardless of the winner, is raced annually in Detroit.
The Gold Cup is quite a different matter, however. With victory in the event goes the right to play host to the race the following season. That accounts for the West Coast’s prime interest in it.
Seattle built a highly successful tourist attraction out of a weeklong Seafair Carnival which had the Gold Cup as its pivotal event.
If it can get the Gold Cup back, then the future success of the carnival is assured.
The city had the race for five consecutive years and educated its fans to believe that it was speedboating’s outstanding prize. The Harmsworth and the Silver Cup do not hold such lofty places in the public rating.
Edwin O. Bodkin, a member of the selection committee of the Yachtmen’s Association of America, which governs the Harmsworth, conferred Friday with Harmsworth and Silver Cup officials.
“If the West Coast owners are interested in the Harmsworth, they are being entirely too complacent,” Bodkin said.
“The Silver Cup will have a highly important bearing on the selection of the boat which will race Miss Supertest in the Harmsworth.
“Even if a Coast boat was ahead of all rivals on points, it is within the jurisdiction of the YAA Committee to bypass it.
“We have the authority to re-evaluate all contenders, and certainly it would be vital to see how the Coast boats race under conditions on the Detroit River before one would be named for the Harmsworth.”
A West Coast boat, Shanty I, is the current leader on a point basis for the Harmsworth selection. Owned by Texas millionaire W.T. Waggoner, it captured the Seafair Trophy last Sunday. Shanty has 808 points in the Harmsworth standing.
Its closest rival is Jack Schafer’s Such Crust III with 407 points. Another Detroit boat, Joe Schoenith’s Gale V is third with 400 points. Gale VI is fourth with 305 and George Simon’s Miss U.S. II and Miss Seattle each have 300 points.
Coast sources indicated that none of the Western-owned boats had started preparations for an early move to Detroit.
— August 11, 1956
Canadian Joins Cup Fight
The bitterness between the Detroit and Seattle unlimited powerboat owners and drivers was overshadowed Thursday by the graciousness of Canada’s Harmsworth challenger.
J. Gordon Thompson, of Canada, announced at a civic gathering of public officials, race boat owners and drivers and press, radio and TV representatives that win. lose or draw in the Harmsworth, his Miss Supertest would join the fleet of Detroit Yacht Club boats in defense of the Gold Cup.
Jack Schafer echoed the feeling of the gathering as he praised the good sportsmanship on the part of the Canadian challenger.
Miss Supertest topped the Detroit boats at a race at Picton. Ont., in June and is reported to be greatly improved by her drivers. Bill Braden and Danny Foster.
Braden will drive the challenger in the Harmsworth and Foster may drive her in the Gold Cup.
Detroit’s owners are bitter over Seattle’s snub of racing here in Saturday’s Silver Cup. They said that they are going to take the Silver Cup. the Harmsworth and the Gold Cup one at a time and be ready as best they can for each.
“Seattle may be gunning for the Gold Cup,” said Schafer, “but they are going to have to outgun us on our own Detroit water.”
— August 17, 1956
Sport Shorts
Detroit (UP) - It appeared today that failure of the Seattle Yacht Club’s “Shanty”, the nation’s leading power speed boat, to compete in Saturday’s Silver Cup race will bar the “Shanty” from the Harmsworth Trophy race.
The 12-man committee of the Yachtmen’s Association of America has indicated only boats competing in the Silver Cup will be considered as the U. S. entry to meet Canada’s “Miss Supertest” in the Harmsworth challenge race.
— August 17, 1956