I met Mira Slovak at the Thun Field Airshow after this race. He was recovering from his accident. What fine gentleman he was!

Being born and growing up in Madison Indiana..what else could you love .

I also was in the crowd that day. I was with a group of guys who worked the summer for the U. S. F. S. Pit Pass cost 1 buck. I was standing next to a boat and no one was around, so I climbed up and inspected the cockpit. Why not. The description below of the situation in Coeur d'Alene is spot on. The city apparently secured a semi fuel tanker and mounted a wire cage on top with a big pump for the water supply, thus used this water cannon for crowd control. We had slept under the stars Friday night and upon entering the city on Saturday morning we saw a line of close to 20 state trooper cars lined up. Only time in my life I smelled tear gas. But the racing was awesome. Those guys piloting those boats had big, big brass, well you know. We were sitting above the lake at about the finish line, the pits were below and to the left. It was a shame the crowd didn't act better. I have still photos of the wreck which I need to send to Kent, WA. I had seen Miss Thriftway traveling perhaps from Detroit back to Seattle and shortly after built a class B outboard hydro and attempted to match the paint pattern. Thriftway was the best, in my opinion.

Love the v-12 sound.

Disappointing run for the Bardahl Green Dragon. A few years later the Checkered Bardahl piloted by Billy "The Kid" Schumacher would rule the roost. That boat becane my favorite as a child in the Tri-Cities, WA where they ran the Atomic Cup. Great times.

I was there. My dad was on the police force, so we had access to the pit. One blew up, and we were finding pieces of the boat floating up to water's edge The town would swell from around 11,000 to a super huge crowd from all over the US. These are water rockets! Around 90 miles an hour. The reason they shut down the Diamond Cup is that there were for lack of a better term, riots that were started by primarily students - merchants in town got tired of the damage, and my Dad told the organizers that they were invited to join the police department on the front line. Sad, as those of us in town really enjoyed the races !