1957 Buffalo Launch Club International Regatta
Gold Cup Race in Seattle Key to Launch Club Regatta
The success of the Buffalo Launch Club’s feature event — for unlimited Gold Cup hydroplanes — on Aug. 17-18 hinges on Sunday’s 90-mile Gold Cup Championship on Lake Washington near Seattle.
Several of the powerful 30-footers attempting to qualify for the Gold Cup have indicated they may come to Buffalo “if we don’t break up in Seattle.” The Buffalo Launch Club's Gold Cup class hydro, Wildroot Charlie, is not running in Seattle. The boat’s engine blew recently. Its driver, burly Bob Schroeder, according to his daughter, Gail, “went to work this morning” from his Wheatfield. N. Y„ home.
But Wildroot Charlie and Schroeder will be ready for the Launch Club regatta. Expected if they survive Seattle are the swift Detroit hydros, Jack Schafer’s Such Crust and Chuck Thompson's Short Circuit. Already entered are: Miss Supertest II, Gordon Thompson, London. Ont.; Gale III, Lee Schoenith, Detroit; Miss Wayne, Bud Saile Jr., Detroit. and Wha Hoppen Too, Chuck Doran, Detroit.
But the most disappointed driver of all is Ron Ehde of Grand Island. He has been feverishly building a 19-foot 7-litre hydro in a garage. Now Co-Chairman George Trimper announces “there will be no 7-litre hydro class in the regatta — for the first time in years — because of conflicting schedules.”
— August 8, 1957