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Chuck Thompson, 54, ace speedboat racer who, in 30 years of piloting everything from outboards to 200-m.p.h., unlimited-class hydroplanes, had copped just about every prize in the sport except the biggest�the Detroit Gold Cup; of a crushed chest following the disintegration of his hydroplane while jockeying for position at 160 m.p.h. in the 58th Gold Cup race on the Detroit River, thus becoming the fourth hydroplaner to die in competition in two weeks.

The Potomac River at Washington, D.C., is not exactly a hydroplaner's delight.