Silver Cup hydro race organizers move event up a month

COEUR d’ALENE — Organizers of this summer’s planned Coeur d’Alene Silver Cup hydroplane races on Lake Coeur d’Alene had to move the date of the event up one month.

The event is now scheduled for July 17-19, a change from Aug. 14-16.

The Spokane to Sandpoint Relay already had a permit with the Idaho Transportation Department for use of the North Idaho Centennial Trail on those August dates.

The relay teams would have been running right through the staging grounds of the race.

Keith Allen, general manager of Silver Cup, said there were multiple discussions with the race organizers to try and make both events work together.

But, in the interests of both sides, Silver Cup had to make the switch.

This puts the Silver Cup one week before the Tri-Cities, Wash., races, known as the Gold Cup.

There is a bright side, Allen said.

“There is a little more consistency of warm weather in July,” he told The Press Friday. “It does put a little more pressure on us because it’s happening about 30 days earlier.”

It gives Allen and the organizers less time to get permits needed for the event.

“We’re up to the task,” he said.