Huckleberries: Hydro racing on Lake CdA? Don’t hold your breath

Coeur d’Alene has this thing for hydroplane races. Or at least some of those in influential positions have a thing.

Twenty-seven years ago the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce announced support for hydroplane racing on Lake Coeur d’Alene. Some thought the chamber was running interference for Duane Hagadone. The Coeur d’Alene resort/newspaper owner had tried unsuccessfully in fall 1985 to persuade the City Council to sign off on the races.

I was covering the meeting in 1985 when the council voted 4-3 to let voters decide the matter. Then-Mayor Jim Fromm cast the tie-breaking vote, despite Hagadone’s threat that he would pull the proposal if the matter went to the voters. Hagadone did. Maybe Hagadone knew what was coming. In the advisory vote, 74 percent opposed the return of hydroplane racing. Many recalled the downtown riots that raged during the 1960s races.

Chamber boosters didn’t bring the races back in 1990. Nor did others for years afterward, until Labor Day Weekend 2013, when races east of Coeur d’Alene ended in indebtedness. Sheriff Ben Wolfinger refused to issue a race permit the following year, unless organizers got their financial house in order. They didn’t. Financial problems dogged organizers in 2015 and 2016 also.

And this year? Organizers have already pulled the request for a race permit.

Don’t hold your breath about future hydroplane races until you see the rooster tails on Lake Coeur d’Alene/ DFO , Huckleberries Wednesday. More here.