Inducted 2000 – Competitor – Power Boat Racing
For four years in the late 1950s-early 1960s, Bob Hayward was Canada’s best-known international athlete. He raced unlimited hydroplanes, the fastest and most powerful racing boats known to man. Hayward and his boat, Miss Supertest, dominated the sport. By domination, it means that if Hayward and Miss Supertest entered a race, they usually won it. A racer who tinkered with the design of his boats, as well as building the motors, Hayward won the famed Harmsworth Trophy all three years he tried for it, defeating such famous hydroplane drivers as Bill Muncey in Century 21 and Miss U.S. 1 driven by Don Williams. Hayward died on Sept. 10, 1961 at the Silver Cup Regatta on the Detroit River when he lost control rounding a curve. In his honour, the Canadian government renamed a bay in Lake Ontario near Picton, the scene of many of his hydroplane triumphs. It is called Hayward Long Reach. Although his career was short, it was totally spectacular.