1939 Gold Cup Remembered

By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian

The 1939 Gold Cup in Detroit was historically significant on several counts.

For the first time since its inception in 1904, the race winner was a three-point hydroplane rather than a step or displacement racer. Never before had a boat with sponsons ever captured the APBA's crown jewel.

It was in 1939 when the three-pointers for the first time showed up in large numbers. The victorious MY SIN was joined by the likes of SO-LONG, MERCURY, WHY WORRY, and HERMES IV.

The 1939 Gold Cup Regatta took place on the weekend of the German invasion of Poland, which signaled the start of World War II. Despite the presence of war clouds on the horizon, Gold Cup competition continued for another two years, but with smaller than usual starting fields. The 1939 Gold Cup was, in essence, boat racing's "last hurrah" prior to the onslaught of WWII hostilities.

An early "casualty" of the war was Italian Count Theo Rossi, the defending Gold Cup champion. Rossi had been unable to obtain a visa to get out of Italy due to the imminence of the war crisis about to engulf Europe. This was most regrettable because his boat, the ALAGI, had already been shipped to Detroit and was awaiting him there.

MY SIN, the 1939 winner, originally owned by Zalmon Simmons, repeated in 1941. After the war, she was acquired by bandleader Guy Lombardo, renamed TEMPO VI, and claimed the first post-war renewal of the Gold Cup in 1946.

Popular "Wild Bill" Cantrell, who led briefly at the start of the race with WHY WORRY, made his first Gold Cup appearance in 1939. Cantrell won the 1949 Gold Cup with MY SWEETIE and competed in his last Gold Cup in 1965 at the wheel of MISS SMIRNOFF.

MERCURY's Marion Cooper and SO-LONG's Lou Fageol also made their first Gold Cup impressions in 1939. Cooper went on to became the first driver of the community-owned MISS MADISON in 1961 and 1962; Fageol scored Gold Cup victories in 1951 and 1954 with SLO-MO-SHUN V and in 1953 with SLO-MO-SHUN IV.