Gar Wood & Kaye Don

Gar Wood & Kaye Don

GAR WOOD and KAYE DON. In 1931, a race was held on the Detroit River billed as a match race between the Wood brothers and English racing driver Kaye Don driving Miss England 2. Before an estimated crowd of over one 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 2 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 Kaye Don were disqualified for jumping the starter's gun by seven seconds. George Wood completed the final race to win the trophy. GARFIELD "GAR" WOOD d1971. American inventor, entrepreneur, motorboat builder and speed pioneer who held the world water speed record on several occasions. He was the first man to travel over 100 miles per hour on water. As well as being a record breaker and showman, Wood won five straight powerboat Gold Cup races between 1917 and 1921 and  also won the prestigious Harmsworth Trophy nine times (1920-21, 1926, 1928-30, 1932-33). An inventive genius, Gar Wood retired from racing in 1933 to concentrate on his business Garwood Industries and at one point held more US patents than any other living person. During the 1950s, he acquired Fisher Island in South Florida, becoming the last of a series of millionaires to occupy it as a one-family island retreat, before eventually selling it to a development group in 1963. He died in Miami at the age of 90 in 1971, just days before the 50th anniversary of his first Harmsworth win. KAYE DON d1981. Legendary speed record holder of the 1930s. Following the death of Henry Segrave, his record breaking speed boat Miss England 2 was salvaged and repaired. In this and then the subsequent Miss England 3, Kaye Don raised the water speed record to 119mph in 1931 and 32. Also the breaker of many landspeed records at Brooklands in the famous Sunbeam Silver Bullet and Tigress. His racing career ended unfortunately in 1934 in The Isle of Man with an accident in which his mechanic was killed. Following this incident he spent six months in prison on a charge of manslaughter.

Showing 0 result

No current items

Archives