Sayres’ Slo-Mo-Shun V to Begin Barnstorming Tour Through East [1953]

 

Seattle Speed Boat Entered in Silver Cup Regatta in Detroit Next Week-End

Fageol Slated to Drive Craft

Stanley Sayres, the gray-haired Seattle auto dealer who holds the world record for speed boats at 178.497 miles an hour, has started his Slo-Mo-Shun V eastward and it is due to arrive in Detroit this week-end for the long-indicated barnstorming tour of Eastern regattas.

Slo-Mo-Shun V will compete over the coming Labor Day weekend in the Detroit Yacht Club’s Silver Cup regatta sponsored by the Detroit International Regatta Association. Another commitment, according to Carl Johnson, executive of the American Power Boat Association, will be to have Slo-Mo-Shun V compete on Sept. 19-20 on the Potomac at Washington in the President’s Cup regatta.

Two other possibilities are being considered by Sayres and the syndicate of Seattle sportsmen who have helped financially in making the Eastern invasion possible. Slo-Mo-Shun V probably will be in the National Sweepstakes regatta at Red Bank, N. J., on Sept. 12-13 and in the New Martinsville, W. Va., regatta on the Ohio River.

What makes this a daring invasion is Sayres’ willingness to let the Eastern eager-beavers have some more competition against his famous ship. Sayres with his fleet of Slo-Mo-Shuns has been in a class by himself since his Slo-Mo IV first took away the famous Gold Cup in the 1950 regatta at Detroit.

Fageol to Drive Craft

Her driver will be Lou Fageol, the Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio sportsman who has a huge engine and bus factory at Kent. Fageol drove the second heat at Seattle this year of the three-heat victory of Slo-3.10 IV. Joseph Taggart of Canton, Ohio, will be the relief driver. He was behind the steering wheel in this year’s first and third Cold Cup heats. The Sayres pit crew will include a quartet of men who have been familiar with the Slo-mo fleet for several years, including Mike Welsch, Joseph Shobert, Elmer Linenschmidt and Martin Headman.

Slo-Mo’s opposition in the Silver Cup will be several of the greatest speed boats of unlimited size that have been created. including Joseph Schoenith’s Gale II and Gale III, which gave keen competition to Slo-Mo on Lake Washington early this month. Moreover, the entire fleet of Detroit craft will be, in effect, playing as a team with the one aim of trying to beat Slo-Mo, a feat that has not been accomplished since 1950. The others will be Albin Fallon’s Miss Great Lakes, driven by Danny Foster; Jack Shafer’s Such Crust III and Such Crust V, driven by Chuck Thompson and Bill Cantrell, and George Simons’ newcomer, Miss United States, driven by Dan Arena.

What’s more, a Canadian entry has added an international flavor. This entry is the former Miss Canada, now renamed Miss Supertest, and owned by Col. Harold Thompson of London. Ont. and to be driven by Bill Braden.

[Reprinted from the New York Times, August 30, 1953]