1940: Motor Boat Racing

The continued advance in speeds made in competition as well as over the measured mile highlighted the 1940 motor boat racing season rather than any one outstanding performance or race of the year. The American Power Boat Association and National Outboard Association, authorities for the sport, together sanctioned 92 regattas in all sections of the country and these brought about a change in 41 existing speed records at the end of the year.

Twenty-four of the new marks were made in the inboard division of motor boat racing and the other 17 were established by drivers of outboard powered craft. The one-mile accomplishment of the Gold Cup racer, Notre Dame, owned by H. A. Mendelson of Detroit, topped the water speed exploits in 1940. Notre Dame was clocked at 100.98 miles an hour, the fastest that any boat in this class (unlimited 12 litres) had ever officially run. This 12-litre record, incidentally, was broken four times in all by American drivers during the year, and all on different fronts. George Cannon's Gray Goose had made 92,623 m.p.h. on the Indian River in Florida in February. Less than a month later, Lou Fageol of Los Angeles drove his So Long at a speed of 97.451 m.p.h. Last September in Washington, D. C., Wild Bill Cantrell of Louisville, Ky., turned in a mark of 98.368 m.p.h., only to have it broken a month later on the St. Clair River in Michigan when Danny Arena took Notre Dame on her 100-mile-an-hour clip.

America's blue ribbon racing classic, the Gold Cup, was held at Northport, Long Island, in August and proved a disappointment despite the fact that seven boats were entered. A rank outsider, Sidney A. Allen of Southampton, Long Island, won the coveted cup with a discarded racer, Hotsy Totsy, after such sterling contenders as Notre Dame and the 1939 winner, Zalmon G. Simmons' My Sin, had broken down. So Long did not get out of the pits and Gray Goose also failed to finish. A few weeks before the regatta, Allen had bought for a song Hotsy Totsy, built in 1937 for the late Victor Kliesrath, a former Gold Cup Champion. A novice driver, he participated in his first big time race, and it took considerable time after the final gun to convince him he actually had won the prize.

A comparative newcomer captured the title in the 225 cubic inch class, still the most popular of inboard racers. Tom Chatfield of Danbury, Conn., nosed out George Schrafft of Newton, Mass., who had held the national crown both in 1938 and 1939. Jack Cooper, the Kansas City, Mo., grandfather and former ruler in the class, ran into a late season jinx and again lost the championships, as well as his one-mile 225 record which Chauncey Hamlin's Voodoo from Buffalo, N. Y., erased late in the year at Picton, Ont. Voodoo raised the mark to 88.786 m.p.h., but Cooper hung on to his competitive record at 70.810 m.p.h.

Cooper won the National Sweepstakes trophy after Notre Dame again faltered, but not until Arena had set up new all-time competitive marks at 76.923 m.p.h. for a two-and-one-half mile lap and 76.140 m.p.h. for a 15-mile heat. Notre Dame finally came through to win the President's Cup in Washington and other national champions were J. D. McIntyre in the 91 class and Henry Davis in the 135 class.

Cruiser racing came to the fore, especially in the east, when 70 boats entered the Gold Cup handicap run to Northport. This was won by Oliver Redfield's Renard. The Motor Yacht Trophy race to Block Island went to Frank P. Huckins' Fairfly and on the Pacific Coast a woman owner, Mrs. Margaret Rust, saw her Electra come home first in the International Trophy run from Tacoma, Wash., to Nanaimo, B.C..

In the outboard division of the sport, Fred Jacoby, Jr., of North Bergen, N. J., scenic artist, won back his national high point scoring honors and Clayton Bishop, Onsett, Mass., fire chief, accomplished the almost unbelievable feat of winning the difficult Albany to New York Marathon down the Hudson River for the third time and the second year in succession. Clinton Ferguson of Waban, Mass., was the season's high scoring amateur outboard driver. Worth Boggeman, Fort Worth, Tex., pro, with three marks paced the record breaking spree among the outboarders that changed all but one of the official 18 speed standards. See also YACHTING.