DETROIT – Two companies have reached an agreement to sponsor -- and keep alive -- Detroit's famous hydroplane race.
Last year the sanctioning body for Detroit's annual hydroplane race, the American Power and Boat Association, elected to move the annual "Gold Cup" race to Tri-Cities, Washington, leaving this year's race in jeopardy.
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However, UAW-GM and Detroit Riverfront Events, Inc. are teaming up to keep hydroplane racing in Detroit with the UAW-GM Spirit of Detroit HydroFest on August 22 and 23, 2015.
The Gold Cup race—dating back to 1904 and held exclusively in Detroit from 1990-2014—will still be held in Tri-Cities, meaning that this year's event will be a standard race. Nonetheless, Mark Weber, president of Detroit Riverfront Events, Inc., says that the event still plays a major role in Detroit.
"The UAW-GM partnership has contributed to the reshaping of the automotive world and its workers, and they are going to be a major contributor in reshaping the City of Detroit and its people," said Weber.
The first sanctioned hydroplane race took place on the Detroit River in 1916, and it's been a Detroit staple ever since. Only a brief hiatus for World War II is keeping Detroit from celebrating a century of uninterrupted championship boat racing.
General admission to the event is free and open to the public with grandstand seating starting at $45.