Reprinted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 5, 1974
Dave Heerensperger received a Gold Cup as a wedding present yesterday. It was something he’d always wanted.
George Henley piloted the unlimited hydroplane Pride of Pay ‘N Pak to a perfect Gold Cup victory on Lake Washington yesterday, then handed the golden goblet to Heerensperger, head of the Seattle racing team, who had been married just 24 hours earlier.
Pay ‘N Pak won all four races in which it was entered yesterday, including the winner-take-all finale, which ended in the dusk after eight-and-a-half hours of racing, before an estimated 35,000 spectators who had paid their way into the new Sand Point hydro area.
Accidents contributed greatly to the delay. The turbine-powered U-95 of Seattle sank in 180 feet of water when its engine exploded, and shrapnel punched a hole in the bottom of the experimental unlimited. In a rerun of that same heat an hour later, Miss U.S. of Detroit caught fire when hot metal from a blown engine ignited fuel in the boat’s bilge. Driver Tom D’Eath was uninjured, but highly critical of the operators of course-patrol craft, for failing to immediately quench the flames.
