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| This race was an invitational only for the winners of the various faster classes, and sponsor options. In the old days, these were called free-for-all events. | Prize money & trophies only.....no points. There were usually 8 boats invited....made up of following classes: Grand Prix, stock 7-Litres, 5 Litre/266 class (Art's hydro), 280 class, and 225 class hydros. |
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| The course was 1-2/3 mi. and ran 3 laps making the race 5 miles. Miss Canadiana was invited because she had done well in the 266 class and had always been a crowd pleaser at Valleyfield. | The
conventional hydro, Miss Canadiana CF-11 was running a fuel injected
302 Chevrolet. (Harvey Payne had put together a
327 block with a 283 crankshaft). |
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| The
winner of the Grand Prix race, Tom D'Eath, was driving the Grand Prix class
cabover,
Long Gone GP 4. |
Long Gone was owned by Les Brown from Elgin, Illinois and was powered by a 426 super charged, fuel injected, Chrysler Hemi. |
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| The see-sawing lead changes and action went on the entire race. The crowd went wild! Tom was taking the outside lane throwing up this tremendous roostertail and Art was taking the inside lane flying through the corners. | It was a prestigious race. Very few people have won the Grand Prix Event and the Molson Invitational in the same weekend. The little 5 litre conventional was gonna give the larger cabover GP a run for the money! |
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| In
the last turn, they were side by side,
then Miss Canadiana broke a valve spring and lost about 600 rpm. Art kept her churning up the water to the end. |
The super charged Hemi GP hydro was pulling ahead. The race this year, would be one being what very few drivers have ever accomplished, with Tom, winning both the GP event and the Molson Invitational. |
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| Tom and the Long Gone won the race by the length of his rooster tail. | After the race was over, Art congratulated Tom and thanked him for making Miss Canadiana and himself look so good. |
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| Tom remarked that he was doing everything possible to stay with him and to finish ahead. | Art says this was the most exciting and enjoyable race of his career, even though he came in second to Tom and the Long Gone. |
| All
pictures of this classic duel between a
conventional and a cabover were photographed by Phil Kunz. Home |