1956 Sahara Cup
Mead Classic Lures Hydros
One more unlimited hydroplane race this year for Seattle’s now all-imposing fleet.
October 13-14 is the date and the spot is Lake Mead where the Southern California Inboard Racing Association and Lake Mead Boat Club ere joining in promoting a two-day regatta which includes all types of racing boats.
The big race is to be for the Sahara Hotel Trophy. It is in the making, is said to be similar in modern design to Seattle’s Seafair Trophy.
The boats will race on a 2½ mile course, one-third mile or 1,760-foot turns on. either end.
From the Seattle fleet are to be W. T. Waggoner’s pair, Shanty I and Maverick; Willard Rhodes’ Miss Thriftway; Roostertails, Inc., Miss Seattle and Bill Boeing’s Miss Wahoo.
Hawaii Kai III, owner by Edgar Kaiser, will run under Lake Tahoe Club’s burge this time as will J. Philip Murphy’s Breathless.
Kent Hitchcock, the Southern California magazine editor who is to referee the race, says the Schoeniths are bringing at least one, possibly two of their Gales and that George Simon’s Miss U.S. II is also entered.
Seven 7-litre boats are entered in that division, Hitchcock says.
— September 15, 1956
Fastest Boats Race on Lake Mead
Las Vegas. Oct. 6 — This resort town, best known for its gambling, becomes the capital of the power boat racing world next week (Oct. 13-14) when the country’s largest and fastest racing boats compete in the first Sahara Cup race on nearby Lake Mead.
The sponsoring Hotel Sahara, which brought England's Donald Campbell to Lake Mead for a world record-shattering run for jet boats last year, has corraled many of the leading boats in the nation.
The field will feature as co-favorites Miss Thriftway and Shanty I, the two unlimited hydroplanes which have won every major race this year. Miss Thriftway was the center of the Gold Cup controversy, being deprived of victory for assertedly hitting a buoy. Later, the judges again reversed themselves and declared the race “no contest" pending a review, the result of which is yet to be announced.
Thriftway, driven by 29-year-old Bill Muncey, also won the recent Presidents Cup race on the Potomac. Shanty I, owned by W. T. Waggoner Jr. of Phoenix and driven by Lt. Col. Russell Schleeb, captured Seattle’s Seafair regatta and the Harmsworth International trophy.
— October 6, 1956
Miss Thriftway Favored in 1st Annual Sahara Gold Cup
By Bob Ruskauff
A raceboat meeting which, in its first year, bids to emerge full-blown in stature with such as the Gold Cup, Harmsworth and Presidents Cup regattas — that’s the hope and the prospectus for the first running on Nevada’s Lake Mead, Saturday and Sunday, of the first annual Sahara Cup regatta.
At least 10 of the big unlimlimited jobs will race, headed by William Rhodes’ Miss Thriftway of Seattle, which Bill Muncey drove to the still-disputed Gold Cup victory at Detroit.
Backing them, in what may prove an equally thrilling show over the two days, will be more than 70 limited class hydroplanes and runabouts, from the tiny 48's to the 7-litre hydroplanes.
The field against Thriftway includes two great potential rivals - William Waggoner's Shanty I, under hand of Lt. Col Russell Schleeh, the trans-con jet plane record maker of a couple years back and Henry Kaiser s Hawaii Kai III, with Jack Regas driving: also Miss Seattle (ex-Slo Mo V), the syndicate-owned hope; Tacoma’s Miss B and I, of Bob Gilliam.
Add as probables by Tuesday deadline such as Maverick; also William Boeing’s Miss Wahoo of Seattle, which Bill Stead, Reno cattleman, will probably drive; J. Philip Murphy’s Muvalong of Piedmont and one or both of Joe Schoenith’s Gales, of.Detroit.
Missing, of course, will be Slo Mo Shun IV, most famed of all the Gold Cuppers, wrecked completely at Detroit.
Gold Cup and Limited in-boards will race both Saturday and Sunday, with Southern California Speedboat Club and Lake Mead Boat Club conducting the action.
— October 7, 1956