1958 Detroit Memorial
Hydroplanes Hit 108.95 In Detroit Speed Tests
Qualifying Continues for Detroit’s Memorial Races
Detroit. June 12 (AP) — High speed qualifications went on today for the Detroit River's Memorial Regatta as Seattle's invader, a new Miss Thriftway, headed overland to take a part in the weekend event.
A tipoff on the class of the field was Short Circuit's 108.95 miles an hour average speed in qualifying yesterday with Chuck Thompson of Detroit at the controls.
Miss Thriftway, a new unlimited hydroplane, entered for two reasons. She wants to pull down a prize and also comes to Detroit out of courtesy.
The boat is a replacement for the two-time Gold Cup winner of the same name which was wrecked on the Ohio river last fall.
Her owner, Willard Rhodes, said Miss Thriftway wants to "repay the compliment" of the participation of the Detroit boat Miss U. S. 1 in Washington’s Lake Chelan Apple cup race last month.
Bill Muncey, former Detroiter who piloted the old Thriftway to her two Gold Cup victories, will be at the wheel of the new boat in the memorial races.
Miss Supertest, the Canadian boat, qualified yesterday at 98.181 m.p h. She and Short Circuit joined with Miss U.S. 1, Gale VI and Wildroot Charlie as qualifiers. Other boats are trying today.
— June 12, 1958
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Trouble Dogs Boats in Trials for Memorial Race
By Joe Dowdall
It took Lady Luck only one day to find out that the powerful unlimited race boats are getting ready to hold their first race of the year on the Detroit River.
Wednesday's opening trials Went along fine until Bill Cantrell in Gale V came out to try to qualify for Saturday's Detroit Memorial Race.
Then the nemesis of the racers butted in and fouled the plugs of Gale V and the boat was through for the day.
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Thursday morning she must have been sleeping when Cantrell drove the Gale V at an average speed of 101.790 miles an hour to become the seventh boat to qualify for the Memorial.
But the drone of Gale V's mighty Allison must have awakened the Lady because she was hiding behind the first buoy when Jack Schafer's Such Crust III came out to qualify. The twin-engined defender made less than two laps when the seals on her gear box let go and she limped to the pits.
She struck again when Lee Schoenlth came out in Gale VI to run an exhibition race with Canada’s Miss Supertest and Freddie Alter in George Simon's Miss U.S. 1 as part of the opening ceremonies of Detroit’s newest and most beautiful restaurant, the. Roostertail.
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Gale VI developed an oil leak; Miss Supertest was towed in after her prop broke a blade, and Alter came in complaining that Miss U.S. 1's engine was "popping.”
The Memorial’s other entry, Bill Hickson’s Bill-Der, was still in the pits with mechanical trouble.
That left only Chuck Thompson’s Short Circuit in fit condition as race fans awaited the arrival of Gold Cup defender Miss Thriftway from Seattle.
Schafer’s Such Crust III and Hickson’s Biil-Der will get their last chance to qualify Friday morning. They must average over 90 miles an hour on the three-mile Detroit River course.
In addition to Short Circuit and Gale V, Miss U.S. 1, Gale VI, Buffalo's Wildroot Charlie, Miss Supertest and Miss Thriftway have qualified.
The Memorial will start at noon Saturday with the final 30-mile heat starting at 5 p.m. The final heat will be broadcast by WKMH.
— June 13, 1958
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Miss Thriftway Is Threat for Detroit Memorial Cup
By United Press International
Detroit, June 13 (UPI) — It Was supposed to be just a fine gathering of midwest boats — mostly from Detroit — and the trophy was almost sure to stay in the motor city. That is, until Miss Thriftway showed her hull.
Tomorrow's Memorial Cup Race for unlimited hydroplanes on the Detroit River attracted the old standbys — Gale V, Short Circuit, Miss U.S. 1, Wildroot Charlie — from Buffalo and the Canadian entry, Miss Supertest.
Then Willard Rhodes of Seattle, owner of Thriftway, the Gold Cup winner the past two years, announced he would send his craft as a friendly gesture since George Simon shipped U.S. 1 out to Lake Chelan last month to compete against the West Coast fleet.
It won’t be the same Thriftway of last season but Bill Muncey, displaced Detroiter now living in Seattle, will be at the helm. The Thriftway familiar to Detroit racing fans disintegrated in the Governor’s Cup Race at Madison, Ind., late last season.
Thriftway was involved in one of the lengthiest disputes in racing history in 1956. Seemingly the winner of the Gold Cup race on the Detroit River, the Seattle entry was disqualified for allegedly striking some buoys.
After a long, drawn-out battle, the trophy finally was awarded to Rhodes, Muncey and Miss Thriftway. To prove it was no fluke, Thriftway made it two in a row last season.
Gale V, overcoming spark plug trouble which hampered her from qualifying Wednesday, skipped over the river at 101.67 miles an hour in her qualifying run yesterday and Miss Supertest went through at an even 100 miles an hour pace.
Short Circuit, the old Tempo VII, skimmed around in 108.98 miles an hour Wednesday for the best time of any qualifier. Chuck Thompson said it would have been better than 110 miles an hour if the right stern hadn’t grabbed coming out of a turn, tearing off some reinforcement.
Supertest set a world record of 184.54 miles an hour on a kilometer course last November and ranks as one of the chief contenders if all her bugs can be worked out.
U.S. 1, Gale VI and Wildroot Charlie didn’t have to pass the qualifying tests since they all had turned in times of better than 90 miles an hour in competition this season.
— June 13, 1958