Shawn Gust
Four decades later
Shawn Gust / Hagadone News Network Doug Miller, event chairman for the upcoming Coeur d'Alene Diamond Cup Regatta this Labor Day weekend, inspects a detail on the 1968 Miss Budweiser hydroplane on July 1, 2010 after the boat was housed at the resort's boat shop. Miller's efforts have helped bring racing back to Lake Coeur d'Alene.
Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2012 10:07 am
Hydroplane rooster tails and boats racing at up to 200 mph will be returning to Lake Coeur d’Alene on Labor Day weekend after a 44-year hiatus with the revived Diamond Cup Regatta.
The return of sanctioned hydroplane racing will take place on a 2-mile track off of Silver Beach. State and county permits have been secured, and plans call for bleachers and boat-viewing room for several thousand spectators.
Coeur d’Alene has hosted exhibition hydroplane runs on the lake each of the last two years, but those were more limited vintage racers, which ran laps each of the last two summers more for show-and-tell than a winner-take-all sprint.