In the qualifying heat of motorboating's classic Gold Cup race at Seattle last week, Driver Orth Mathiot barely managed to make the minimum 65 m.p.h. speed in his blue-grey Quicksilver, a sleek, new, 31-foot hydroplane. Devil-may-care Mathiot, a Portland, Ore. tugboat operator, was not really expecting Quicksilver to win the cup. Neither were Seattle's boat-racing fans, who turned out at nearby Lake Washington to cheer their hometown entry, Slo-Mo-Shun V, which set two records in the first of three final runs 97.826 m.p.h. for a three-mile lap, 91.766 m.p.h. for the 30-mile heat.
But Skipper Mathiot wasn't complaining. While Slo-Mo-Shun V also...