MISS SPOKANE HYDRO RENOVATION PROJECT IN THE WORKS

The Miss Spokane seen in a test run at Lake Coeur d’Alene in the 1960s. Volunteers hope to bring the old boat back to life in an ambition restoration project being conducted in Chelan.

SPOKANE — Long before area sports fans were either belated or devastated by how the Seahawks, Mariners or Zags might fare on a given day or year, there was another team that galvanized parts of the region.

It was some 70 years ago that the Miss Spokane unlimited hydroplane carried the hopes and dreams of big-time greatness for the city that always played second-fiddle to Seattle.

The paint on its mahogany deck that has faded over the decades but to old-time hydroplane fans the “Lilac Lady” still holds a soft spot in hearts and memories in.

Brothers Mitch and Mark Evans have agreed to get behind the effort to rebuild the Miss Spokane which last raced — and won — in 1966 at Sacramento as the Miss Lapeer. These Chelan, Wash. residents are in the process of seeing just what it will take to return the weathered hull to the water.

It’s a project near and dear to their hearts because their father, Norm, once drove the boat for several years.

Mark Evans recalled, “As a little bitty kid” when his parents went to the Diamond Cup to watch dad race. “I barely remember it of course you know,” Evans said. “The one thing I do remember is kind of when they had the riot.”

The Miss Spokane made history in 1957 when it became the first community-owned unlimited hydroplane. Others followed, the most notable being the Miss Madison from the shores of the Ohio River in Indiana.

The story of the Miss Spokane dates back to a time when the nearest NFL team was in San Francisco and prior to the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles to play baseball.

Hydroplane racing was the Northwest’s Major League sport in the 1950s, drawing huge crowds to the shores of Seattle’s Lake Washington.

That fascination prompted places like Coeur d’Alene and Chelan — both small communities with big lakes — to stage their own races.

While the rooster tails still fly in Seattle, the sights and sounds of the thunderbolts have largely faded. Chelan still presents its annual “Mahogany & Merlot” event each October where they roll out vintage boats from the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum in Seattle.

According to hydroplane historian and author, Stephen Shepperd, the campaign reportedly raised $8,000 to buy the boat hull once owned by Bill Boeing, Jr. of Seattle airplane builder fame.

The money was raised a dollar at a time with each shareholder’s donation purchasing a square-inch of the boat. Other promotional items that augmented the operation from plastic lilac earrings to oversize matchbooks and more.

And like today’s battles with sports playing “salary poker,” so the Miss Spokane not only raced the Miss Thriftway or Miss Bardahl on the water but their huge budgets as well.

The battles were rarely fair throughout the Miss Spokane’s short run from 1958 to 1961. The boat never won a race but came so close to claiming the checkered flag — and immortality.

Twice the boat came oh so close, within a lap on its shoestring budget to capturing major race wins at Seafair and Gold Cup — hydroplane’s Super Bowl.

Perhaps the most disappointing and consequential of those two races for the boat came as Miss Spokane was leading the 1961 Gold Cup on Nevada’s Pyramid Lake.

The boat flipped throwing driver Rex Manchester from the boat which sank in 80 feet of water. A race win would have allowed Spokane (well Coeur d’Alene) to host the 1962 Gold Cup.

Eventually raised and brought back to Spokane, the run of the Lilac Lady was done. It lived a new life as the Eagle Electric for a couple of years before being sold to an owner in Lapeer, Mich.

After the Sacramento win the Miss Lapeer was retired and put on display in the city for nearly 20 years.

When word surfaced that the boat would be sent to the scrap heap, a rescue mission brought the boat home again. For the cost of licensing the trailer in 1983 the Miss Spokane came home where it sat in storage until just recently.

Now owned by Pancho Simonson, son of former boat crew chief Kent Simonson, and stored in his Spokane-area shop, the Evans brothers are calculating just what this project will entail.

They plan to visit in the new year to evaluate the road ahead.

Aside from the general boat restoration which they did in a reclamation project on the Breathless hydro, Evans says they need to locate a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.

But more importantly for Evans is the unique shape of the tail fin with its rounded edges. “I’ve always loved the tail,” which Evans once thought he would replace on his automotive-powered limited hydro.

This is not the first attempt to return the Miss Spokane to its earlier form. Simonson was part of efforts in the 1980s and 1990s along with original owner Ron Miller. “When Ron Miller died in 1999, the restoration effort died with him,” Shepperd said.

Evans said he and his brother urged Simonson through the years on his visits to Mahogany & Merlot to get the restoration project moving.

“Every year we would prod Poncho, ‘Come on, Poncho, you gotta’ get that boat put together,’” Evans said.

“I’m gonna get to it someday,” was Simonson’s reply. The last time Simonson came to Chelan, he told Evans, “I’m kind of getting older, and maybe we better do something?”

The propellers are apparently beginning to spin on this project.

Information on the project will be able to be found on the Diamond Cup Hydromaniacs Facebook page.