Miss Bud In Tri-Cities

The pits will be jammed for this weekend’s Tri-Cities Budweiser Columbia Cup, with 11 unlimited hydroplanes lining the shores of Columbia Park.

Topping the list is two-time defending national champion Miss Budweiser, which has been virtually untouchable for the better part of a year.

Driver Dave Villwock (6,687) holds a huge lead in points over Mark Weber (4,945) in the York Heating and Air Conditioning U-10. The former Spokane-based Appian Jeronimo is a distant third with 3,734 points.

The U-3 Vacationville.com with Mitch Evans driving is the only traditional piston-powered boat in the field. The U-25 Miss Freei, with Ken Muscatel driving, is the boat that just recently eclipsed the nearly 40-year-old mile straightaway speed record in Seattle.

The Lights, all powered by automobile engines, should see their best attended race this year, bringing between 10 to 13 hulls to the event.

Gates open Friday and Saturday at 8 a.m. with unlimited testing beginning at noon Friday and the first qualifying session from 3-5 p.m. Saturday’s unlimited activity includes unlimited qualifying from 10-11 a.m., 12:45-2:45 p.m. as well actual competition with heats 1A and 1B for the unlimited being run on Saturday beginning at 4 p.m.

Sunday, gates open at 7:30 a.m. with unlimited heat 2A at 11:30 a.m. and the unlimited championship race at 4:15 p.m.

A vintage hydroplane race will take place at 3:30 with the Miss Madison, Hawaii Kai III and the Atlas Van Lines.

Mini-sprints at West Plains

The dirt track at West Plains Speedway in the Spokane Motorsports Complex will be site of a special night of winged race cars and karts Saturday.

The fifth-mile oval, located within the former ORV Park off Garfield Road in Airway Heights, will host a field of mini-sprints from across the region, as well as a contingent of winged outlaw go karts from Montana.

“This is the first time that we’ve had both mini-sprints and the winged outlaw karts at the track,” said promoter John Reidburn. “These machines are a smaller version of the mini-sprints, but the motors are big so they run almost the exact same times as the mini-sprints,” Reidburn said.

Time trials are at 6 p.m. with racing at 7:30.

Tom Patrick Memorial set

Northport International Raceway returns to racing after a three-week hiatus Saturday with the running of annual Tom Patrick Memorial race. “Tom absolutely lived and breathed racing,” said Northport spokesman Monte Zema.

Patrick was a local racer who was killed in a freak accident at the track about 10 years ago. Modifieds and Street Stocks will compete with time trials are at 1 p.m.

Stateline outboards visit Ione

The Stateline Outboard Racing Association begins a busy month with their annual visit to Ione, Wash., for the Downriver Days regatta at the city park. It will be the group’s third points race of the season and the half-way point of the schedule. The Ione event kicks off a schedule that has the outboards racing three out of the next four weekends, moving upstream on the Pend Oreille each time to do it.

Next up will be a return to Newport for a two-day race August 12 and 13 and the following weekend Priest River will host the hydros. Info: (208) 265-8854.

Personal watercraft qualifier

The third International Jet Sports Boating Association (IJSBA) sanctioned Personal Watercraft race will be Sunday at Sprague Lake Resort.

The race will feature the Novice Ski 785 S/S, Novice Sport 785 Ltd and Novice Runabout 785 Ltd classes. The overall winner of each class will travel to Lake Havasu, Ariz., to race in the Skat-Trak World Finals. Another qualifier is Aug. 6 at Clarkston.

Info: Roy Mackey (509) 255-6237

Pit stops

There will be a return to normal at Spokane Raceway Park this weekend. After hosting its AHRA World Finals, SRP gears down a bit with Friday high school drags (time trials 5:30), Saturday’s usual bracket drags (TT 3:30) and stock cars on the oval (TT 5 p.m.)… . The WMRA Midgets return to Stateline Speedway for the second time on Saturday night along with Grand American Sportsmen and Hobby Cars (TT 6 p.m.)… . The touring N.W. Late Model Fours are back in Big Sky country Saturday night when they visit the tri-oval at Misson Speedway in Ronan, Mont.

Streaks, stats

Todd Witham recorded his third Interstate Superstock victory of the season Saturday night at Stateline Speedway… . Matt Comstock snapped Lonnie Stocker’s five-race winning streak in Stateline’s Fever Four Hobby class… . Pat Lewis has won three out of his last four races in the S-Line Sportsman class.