Gold Cup (motorsport)
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| APBA Gold Cup | |
|---|---|
| Title sponsor | UAW-GM Center for Human Resources |
| Dates | August 27–28, 2016 |
| Location | Detroit River, Detroit, Michigan |
| Track length | 2.5 mi (4 km) (TBD?) |
| First race | 1904 |
| Most recent winner | U-5 Miss Graham Trucking Driver - J. Michael Kelly |
| Website | http://www.detroitboatraces.com/ (2016 race) |
APBA Gold Cup is the premier hydroplane boat race in the United States, which is sanctioned by the American Power Boat Association and run as part of the H1 Unlimited season. The race has been contested annually since 1904, and, up until 1990, rotated regularly between locations.
The Gold Cup is the oldest active trophy in motor sports. The trophy was first awarded in 1904 as the APBA Challenge Cup. Hydroplane racing became a tradition in Detroit when designer Christopher Columbus Smith (of Chris-Craft Boats) built a Detroit-based boat that would crack the 60 miles-per-hour speed barrier, capturing the Gold Cup in 1915. The first major race to be run on the Detroit River was the 1916 APBA Gold Cup.
The community-owned Miss Detroit won the Gold Cup in 1915 on Manhasset Bay, outside of New York City, and earned the right to defend it the following year on home waters. Miss Detroit was a single-step hydroplane, equipped with a 250-horsepower Sterling engine. The designer was the distinguished Christopher Columbus Smith of Chris-Craft fame.
The sport's first superstar rose to prominence, winning the 1917 Gold Cup in Minneapolis. Named after two U.S. Presidents, Garfield Wood (aka "Gar") became the personification of power boat competition. This was Wood's first of five consecutive victories as a driver in "the race of races."
In 1920, at the wheel of his twin Smith-Liberty-powered Miss America, Wood averaged a phenomenal 70.412 miles per hour in the 30-mile Final Heat on a 5-mile course. The record would stand until 1946.
In the 1921 Gold Cup, Gar was simply unbeatable. For the next two decades, Gold Cup racing was restricted—supposedly for safety but halted Gar Wood's domination, and also to put the sport into the range of more pocketbooks than had previously been the case. Hydroplane hulls were outlawed and the engine size was limited to 625 cubic inches. Hydroplanes were re-admitted in 1929 and the cubic inch displacement was eventually raised to 732.
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