| Garfield Wood |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT GARFIELD WOOD | |
| 1880 births | |
| 1971 deaths | |
| water speed records | |
| american motorboat racers | |
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His father was a ferryboat operator on Lake Osakis , and Gar worked on boats from an early age. In 1911 at 31, he invented a Hydraulic lift for unloading coal from rail trucks. He established the Wood Hoist Co. in Detroit and soon became a successful businessman. In 1916 , Wood purchased a motorboat for racing called ''Miss Detroit''. Wood set a new World Record speed for a boat, (74.870 mph) in 1920 on the Detroit River , using a new boat called ''Miss America''. In the following twelve years, Wood built four more ''Miss America's'' and broke the record five times, raising it to 124.860 mph (200.9 kmp) in 1932 on the St. Clair River . In 1921 , Wood raced one of his boats against the Havana Special train, 1250 miles up the Atlantic coast from Miami to New York City . Wood made the trip in 47 hours and 23 minutes and beat the train by 12 minutes. In 1925, he raced the Twentieth Century Limited train up the Hudson River between Albany and New York and won by 22 minutes. As well as being a record breaker and showman, Wood won five straight powerboat Gold Cup races between 1917 and 1921. Wood also won the prestigious Harmsworth Trophy nine time (1920-21, 1926, 1928-30, 1932-33). In 1931, he lost the Trophy in dramatic circumstances to his younger brother George. The race was held on the Detroit River and was billed as a match race between the Wood brothers and English racing driver and record-breaker Kaye Don , driving ''Miss England II''. Before an estimated crowd of over a million spectators (one of the largest crowds for a sporting event ever), Don won the first heat of the race. In the second heat, Wood was leading Don, when ''Miss England II'' suddenly flipped over rounding one of the turns, fortunately without injury to Don and his co-driver. Gar Wood finished the race first, but both he and Don were disqualified because they had jumped the starter's gun by seven seconds. George Wood completed the final race to win the trophy. Wood retired from racing in , Jules Verne , Frank Merriwell with a little bit of Horatio Alger thrown in.” AWARD He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall Of Fame Of America in 1990. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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