Hydro races get green light - again

COEUR d'ALENE - Hydro race promoters say the races will return to Lake Coeur d'Alene this Labor Day weekend.

And, according to a flier marketing the race, tickets will be available March 1.

But promoters couldn't elaborate Monday on how this year's event would be different than last year's - the one that was canceled because of a financial shortfall after the plan was announced in grand fashion.

"I am pleased to announce that H1 Unlimited Series will Return to Coeur d'Alene," Sam Cole, H1 Unlimited chairman, said in a press release issued Saturday. "A deposit check was forwarded to us and we are excited to be returning to a legendary race site after many years of absence."

The release didn't state who issued the check, or in what amount. Monique Theilman, of the advertising agency representing the Diamond Cup Regatta, couldn't disclose the amount. She said some sponsors have been secured, but couldn't detail how many or how much financing is in hand. A lack of sponsorship is what sunk last year's plan.

But a flier promoting the event says tickets will be available at the TicketsWest website, and the web page, www.cdadiamondcup.com, will soon have information detailing this year's races.

Last year, local hydro fans formed the Coeur d'Alene Diamond Cup Regatta Inc. board of directors. In June, the board announced the return of sanctioned hydroplane races to Lake Coeur d'Alene after a four-decade absence. The announcement was made during a press conference on a boat that circled the race course off Silver Beach and East Lake Coeur d'Alene Drive.

The proper permits had been secured, the team said then, and plans for bleachers and boat viewing room for "several thousand" spectators was planned. The cost of the holiday weekend show was estimated at a "couple hundred thousand" dollars, according to the organizers.

But just a month later, the event was canceled because of a lack of sponsorship support. The board of directors said at the time that the event would have to wait until 2013.

Now, organizers say, the wait shouldn't be much longer.

"The community looks forward to bringing the fastest boats in the world to a fantastic NorthernNorthwest locale," Cole said in the press release. "I wish to thank H1's Ted Grange for his work as well as Doug Miller and the Diamond Committee for their continued efforts in bringing this event to reality."

Miller, the CDADCR race chair who has been working on bringing the races back for a few years, told The Press Friday that meetings could be set up in the coming weeks, but details weren't final.

Coeur d'Alene banned hydro racing in city limits in 1996 after a public advisory vote asked the city to do so following unruly behavior by some spectators.

But the proposed race track for the race's return was set outside city limits.

The race will be held Aug. 30 through Sept. 1, according to the press release. It has been 45 years since the hydroplanes roared across Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Coeur d'Alene has hosted exhibition hydroplane runs here two of the last three years, as organized by Miller. But those were more limited, vintage racers for exhibition, while this year's event is supposed to be for sanctioned races.