Reprinted from Facebook.
If there was ever a race that I would have wanted to attend back in my youth, it would have been the 1974 World Championship in the Tri. Unlike the disastrous Gold Cup two weeks later in Seattle, the race on the Columbia River was filled with many of the hulls in Seattle that never hit the water, burned up, blew up, sank, you name it! Seattle’s Gold Cup was only memorable for one particular heat 1C that became known as one of the greatest piston powered battles of all time between the Pak and the Bud. However, this is two weeks earlier now and we are in the Tri-Cities.
There were 12 boats that qualified for this race with George Henley in the Pay 'n Pak at the top with a speed of 119.681mph, but close behind was the new U-55 Lincoln Thrift at 118.421 mph driven by Mickey Remund. The new U-2 Miss U.S. with Tom D’Eath and the U-74 Valu-Mart with Ron Armstrong were tied for third with 116.883mph followed by Howie Benns in the U-12 Miss Budweiser at 115.681 mph.
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| Photo by Randy Hall |
The points structure had the slower boats in heats 1A and 2A, the faster boats were in heats 1B and 2B, and the fastest boats were in heats 1C and 2C with the winners in the fast heat getting 400 points while the winners in the middle heat getting only 300 points. The slow boat winners were given 225 points. The final heat point structure was even more bizarre in the final with the winner getting 600 points, 450 to 2nd, 338 to 3rd, 254 for 4th.
The consolation winner, the U-4 Kirby Classic received 200 points and the U-22 Sunny Jim getting 150 for 2nd place. Wow! OK, the winners in the fast heats were the Pak in 1C and the U-95 in 2C. The winners in the middle of the road heat were the Bud in 1B and the Atlas in 2B. And finally, the slow heat winner was the U-44 Pizza Pete in both 1C and 2C. Not bad for one of the three Schoenith river sleds in attendance, driven by Fearless Fred Alter.
So, it came down to the all-important final heat. The top six points getters were the Pak, the U-95, the Bud, the Valu-Mart, the Pizza Pete and the U-76 Miss Cott Beverages. Sadly, three major contenders, the Atlas Van Lines, the Lincoln Thrift and the Miss U.S. did not have enough points to qualify for the final based on not being able to finish one of their heats. So, when the Bud went down during the final heat, the door was wide open for Henley in the Pak to cruise to victory, followed by Freddy Alter in the Pizza Pete, Ron Armstrong in the Valu-Mart and coming in 4th place, the turbine powered U-95 with Leif Borgersen. Son after 12 boats qualifying for the race, there were only six finishers between the final and the consolation.
Hmmm maybe the disaster in Seattle was a bit better. Oh well. At least the fans got to see the Australian entry VS-41 Solo run a few laps during her failed qualifying attempt but I’m sure some of the sun-drenched fans cared very little about the boats on the water and paid more attention to the suntanned skin in the water and on the beach.
