1958 Apple Cup
Miss Spokane Hydro, Two Others at Lake
Chelan, Wash., May 6. — Three unlimited hydroplanes were on hand here today for Sunday's running of the second annual Lake Chelan Apple Cup race and at least three more crafts were expected to arrive this afternoon.
Twelve boats have been entered.
First to arrive was the Maverick, the defending champion from Arizona. Others in the pits are the Miss Spokane and Coral Reef, the former Miss Rocket from Tacoma.
Maverick attempted to be the first boat to qualify yesterday but a malfunction of the time clock resulted in one trip at 118 miles an hour around the three-mile course being declared unofficial. If the Maverick can qualify at that speed it will be a world record for one lap.
Crew Chief George Alexieve of the Miss Spokane camp said that if the Spokane boat could become the first to qualify that the attempt would be made this afternoon. In the event that another boat is first, Alexieve said Miss Spokane probably wouldn't make its qualifying attempt until tomorrow morning.
— May 6, 1958
Maverick In Fast Chelan Trial Run
Chelan, Wash. (AP) — The defending champion Maverick hit an unofficial speed of 118 miles an hour Monday in an attempt to qualify for the Apple Cup unlimited hydroplane race on Lake Chelan.
There was a malfunction in the time clock and the Maverick’s trip around the three-mile course went down as just a trial run.
The Maverick, the Miss Spokane and the Coral Reef were in the pits Tuesday morning and three more boats were expected to arrive later in the day.
Twelve boats are entered in Sunday’s race and will be qualifying the rest of the week.
It takes a speed of 90 miles an hour to qualify. Had the Maverick’s 118-mile an hour run been official, it would have set a new record for one lap for unlimited hydros.
— May 6, 1958
Chelan Awaits the Apple Cuppers
It has been and still is open to argument in this corner whether a race for unlimited hydroplanes is in reality a sports event or whether it is a glorified picnic, one of those things to which people go because they want to be able to say they were there.
Whichever way you care to look at it, the people will be in Chelan again Sunday for the second running of the Apple cup race. Fortunately, so will the boats — 11 of them, according to the most recent count made by Dr. Leslie Woods.
Dr. Woods is the Chelan optometrist who, for the second year, has the job of putting out publicity and making press arrangements. Putting out the publicity isn’t too bad. Newspapers have developed an air of ready acceptance about hydroplane news, especially in the Northwest.
"But it goes a lot farther than that," says Dr. Woods.
“Last summer we were in Chicago, a couple of months after our first race here. Believe me, everybody knew about Chelan and Lake Chelan. What else could have brought us the same amount of publicity?"
"Arranging for the press is tougher. With 11 boats entered. there will be — if you care to reckon things that way — a dozen press representatives for each one. At least, Dr. Woods is figuring on the basis of 135 occupants of the official barge, a figure which includes 40 television technicians.
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The Winner Really Will Win
There are going to be quite a few differences from last year's race, the biggest involving the running of the race itself. Assuming all 11 boats qualify, there will be four preliminary heats and from these the six fastest boats will go into the final. The point and bonus-point system formerly used in Gold Cup-type competition has been scrapped, and the winner of that final wil be the winner of the trophy.
The Chelan sponsors came up with two innovations for hydro racing last year which now have been made standard equipment by the American Powerboat association. One were the nine-foot buoys used to mark the three-mile race course. The other was the special giant-faced clock which ticked off the last 60 seconds one by one, one-sixtieth of the face changing color for each second that passed.
For one thing, George Purviance and Dick Pell, who created the clock for the inaugural, have rigged it to be operated electrically rather than manually this year.
For another, they have come up with a preliminary timing device that will be visible not only to the drivers jockeying up-course to hit the starting line right on the second, but also to most of the spectators. At the top of a 60-foot mast erected on the press barge will be four canvas "tubes,” six feet deep and six feet in diameter. After the five-minute warning gun sounds, one of these will be collapsed as each minute passes, until the electric clock takes over for the. last 60 seconds.
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CAA Expects 300 Private Planes
Chelan is ready (there’s one brand-new cafe to ease the eating crush, one brand-new motel to ease the sleeping same). The lake is ready (they’re hoping for an extra foot or two of water level, although there’s more than the legal minimum right now). The course is ready (the buoys have been in place for better than a week).
As for the spectators, presumably they’re ready, too. The Civil Aeronautics association, which checked 105 private planes into the Chelan airfield last year, has sent word to be ready to handle 300 this time. There’ll be a special train from Seattle, special busses from Seattle and Spokane. . . .
As I said, they argue whether it’s a sports event. But there’s no denying it’s an event.
— May 6, 1958