1960 Diamond Cup
Sartz Pilots Seattle Too to Diamond Cup Win
Miss Burien, driven by Chuck Hickling, purrs back to the pit area after winning the third and final heat of the Diamond cup unlimited hydroplane race yesterday on Lake Coeur d'Alene. The triumph earned Miss Burien second place in the final standings. Perfect weather added to enjoyment of spectators.
Crew members of the Miss Seattle Too climb aboard the big hydroplane and give driver Dallas Sartz of Spokane a pat on the back after he captured the Diamond cup yesterday. The boat won the 1959 Apple cup as Pay ‘N’ Save. (S-R photos by Ed Gilkey.)
Burien Takes Finale; Spokane Goes Dead
By Harry Missildine
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, July 24—Spokane’s Capt. Dallas Sartz today won the Diamond cup unlimited hydroplane race on Lake Coeur d’Alene in Miss Seattle Too by combining courage and savvy with a boat prepared to deliver the goods.
To be accurate, you’d have to say it was a joint delivery between Captain Sartz, first-day driver Norm Evans of Chelan and the Seattle Too’s owners and crew from across the mountains.
But for the some 70,000-80,000 lakeside spectators and many of the million televiewers, it was an Inland Empire victory in the Inland Empire’s only unlimited race.
Evans Won Saturday
It was Evan’s who sent the Seattle Too on the road to victory by picking up 400 points by winning his Saturday heat section in the two-day race. Evans immediately enplaned for Detroit where he drove the Nitrogen today on St. Clair River.
Captain Sartz finished just as effectively as Evans had started. He blasted Seattle Too to victory again in today’s heat 2-A, downing Hawaii Kai, the boat which had beaten the favored Miss Thriftway yesterday.
And it was again Sartz in the final and pay-off heat, who had both a good grip on the situation as well as the wheel when he spun home second behind Miss Burien to clinch the third annual Diamond cup championship.
Thrifty Splashed
Burien's victory in the final heat with Chuck Hickling driving won second in the overall standings; the Thriftway, a drowned out but restarted fourth-place finisher in the last heat, was third; the Kai was fourth, Bardahl fifth. Dollar Bill sixth. Miss Spokane seventh and KOL-Roy I eighth.
Sartz and Seattle Too went into the final heat with 800 points, 100 more than Bill Muncey in Thriftway and Ron Musson in Hawaii Kai, each with 700.
That set the stage for a tremendous last heat start because both Muncey and Musson needed to win the last 15-miler to have a crack at the championship.
Couldn’t Coast
And the Seattle Too couldn’t afford to stay off the pace either, because even a second-place finish there, though it would tie her in the final point totals, could lose her the race on the tie-breaking elapsed time basis.
It was as hair-raising a start as this often-thrilling Diamond cup has seen—five hydroplanes stacking their bows across the starting line together as they roared over smooth water at 170 miles an hour.
As they headed for the first turn Miss Thriftway seemed to get there first, but she didn't— and that was the crucial moment of the race. Hickling, driving farther outside, got the Burien’s note in front of Muncey as they turned. Hawaii Kai and Sartz in Seattle Too had disappeared into the screen of rooster tails and when they came out the Burien was in front; the Kai was second; Seattle Too third. b lay dead in the water.
Out of Contention
Hickling’s roostertail probably had drowned out the Thrifty’s ignition system or supercharger and she was out of contention.
As they roared down the back- stretch, the Kai and Seattle Too were chasing Miss Burien at 200-yard intervals. Suddenly the Kai. which had run splendidly yesterday when it beat Thriftway, went dead as the three leaders approached the south turn.
Sartz whizzed by the stricken 1958 Gold Cup champion and right then he knew he had the race in his pocket if he could maintain second place.
It would have amounted to foolish bravado for Sartz to challenge Hickling in the final heat. Burien couldn't win the cup as long as Sartz finished second. And Muncey. although he eventually restarted the Thrifty, lost nearly a lap and had no chance.
The Kai was out for good. So was Miss Spokane, whose driver Rex Manchester also had his nose close to the front in the last heat start. But the Lilac Lady went dead just as the starting cannon boomed.
She remained on the course just outside the starting buoy while the race was completed, Manchester standing disconsolately on her dock.
Drove for Second
"I knew I had it if nobody passed me from behind. All I had to do was finish second, and that's the way I drove it after the Kai went dead," Sartz explained after he'd been kissed by the queens, pummeled by owners Milo and Glenn Stoen of Seattle, and thrown into the water for his traditional victory dip.
"There was lots more power there in the last heat. If I'd had to catch somebody? I’d have had a chance but it would have been awfully tough. You’ve got to give Hickling a big assist. You've got to remember it was Wes Kiesling, the best Rolls engine man in the business, who got this boat ready,” Sartz said modestly
Kiesling, former Hawaii Kai engine chief, is crew chief of Miss Seattle Too.
Picked Right Up
This afternoon’s second heat saw Sartz and Seattle Too resume precisely where another former Miss Spokane driver, Chelan's Norm Evans, left off yesterday.
Captain Sartz won heat 2-A, thus Seattle Too took the top point total of 800 into the final 15-mile sprint. Sartz won the heat by outdriving Musson in Hawaii Kai, yesterday's sensational winner over Miss Thriftway.
The man who was fired as Miss Spokane's driver for Evans last season, made a beautiful start. Sartz was just one and one-half seconds under the starting gun and on the inside position.
Kai Gaining
Hawaii Kai was gaining—though running wider—as they hit the starting line and Musson in the Kai edged his orchid-nose ahead of Seattle Too as the cannon fired.
But Sartz, pouring on all his coal, stuck steadfastly to the inside. As he approached the all-important first turn on the north leg of the course, Sartz crowded the Seattle Too within scant feet of the turning buoys.
He was in the air more than once rounding that first turn, but he stayed with her. Seattle Too's acceleration leaving for the backstretch was splendid and Captain Sartz picked up 1000 yards on the Kai before they rounded the south turn, completing the first lap.
Couldn't Pass
Now the Kai had to pass Sartz as he'd passed Muncey in winning Yesterday's heat 1-B from Thrifty. But he never could. Sartz stuck close to his turn buoys and his gas pedal. The Kai would gain slightly ip the straightaways but never could catch him in the turns.
Coming for the line at the end of the third lap, as Sartz had to slow slightly to lap Dollar Bill, Musson made his move.
He tried to cut inside Sartz’ turning arc, under heavy throttle pressure, but he had neither enough room nor enough speed.
Took Water
His course took him through the Seattle Too's roostertail as they turned for the fourth straightaway, and that was the boat race and heat 2-A. Musson, who said he took water aboard trying to catch Seattle Too, slackened off and Sartz, home free, eased back on the throttle and won by 300 yards in an average lime of 102.857.
His starting lap was 107.570, on slick water; his second was 105.058, and his third—despite slowing to pass Ray Crawford in Dollar Bill, was 103.250.
Miss Thriftway. involved in a three-boat blanket for first turn supremacy in heat 2-B, emerged the victor on water that was subsiding to mill pond quietness— until the hydros churned it up.
Muncey, in Thriftway, badly needed a first place after his second to the Kai yesterday, bowled over the starting line nose-to-nose with Jim McGuire in Miss Bardahl.
Chuck Hickling in Miss Burien and Rex Manchester in Miss Spokane were just behind, hidden behind rooster tails. Muncey punched Thrifty as they headed for the north turn in 2-B, drew ahead of Bardahl as b gained ground on the outside.
When they rounded the first urn near the Coeur d'Alene locks, Muncey and Hickling were almost matching gunwales. But he Thrifty came out of the first turn first, then set sail down the backstretch to win as she pleased.
Hickling Enraged
Hickling, who finished second in the heat after losing second place to Bardahl but barely retaking it on the final turn, returned to the pits enraged. He claimed that Muncey "chopped him off” in the first turn, but the claim never was entered officially.
Muncey made the 15 miles in heat 2-B averaging 107.398 miles an hour, the best through the first two heats.
Miss Spokane blew a water line after rounding the first turn in heat 2-B and suffered a big loss in power. She cruised through the first lap, running last, and driver Rex Manchester did a little thinking himself. Instead of sticking it out and risking damage to the engine, he took Miss Spokane into the pits.
His 300 points gained yesterday qualified him for the final 15-mile heat.
Heat 2-A
1. Seattle Too, Dallas Sartz (400 points), 102.857 t 2. Hawaii Kai, Ron Musson (300), 99.887J 3. KOL-Rol I. Bob Gilliam (225), 89.315 : 4. Dollar Bill. Ray Crawford (189). 71.353.
Heat 2-B
1. Miss Thriftway, Bill Muncey (400), 107.398; 2. Miss Burien, Chuck Hickling (300), 98.1481 3. Miss Bardahl, Jim McGuire (225), 98.497). Miss Spokane blew water line and did not finish.
--- Spokesman-Review, July 25, 1960