Officials for the Madison Regatta in Madison, Indiana, have reached an agreement with H1 Unlimited that will give the city an event in which competitors can earn points toward the national championship. The Governor’s Cup will be held on the
Ohio River July 7 and 8.

     Last year, race organizers opted to pay tow money to only four boats because they need to save money. The event had been plagued in previous years with events that were canceled or greatly reduced in scope       Continued, click here ...

 UNJ INTERVIEW:
Steve Sposari

by Craig Fjarlie

Words of wisdom from a man who has
directed unlimited races from coast to coast.

For the complete March Issue and all our regular features, click here...

Madison will get a H1 points race in 2018.

The Madison Race Team with their award hardware.

 March 2018

The Tri-Cities rolls out the red carpet for H1 awards night.

by Chris Tracy

      During Seafair week, Sposari worked on his father’s Resources Committee making sandwiches, delivering donuts to all the boat crews, that type of thing, he explains. “He put me to work early, but I really enjoyed being down in the pits.”

     Soon, Sposari was interested in taking on more responsibility. “When I turned 18 and was old enough to be a full-fledged volunteer at the time, I took over the Crane Committee. That really got me started as far as truly working on hydroplane races and learning how to become a race director.”

     In the following interview, Steve Sposari discusses his work as a race director and offers some thoughts about the current status of unlimited racing. The conversation was conducted in late December 2017 by Craig Fjarlie at Sposari’s office.                                              Continued, click here ...

The Tri-City Water Follies has sought to host the annual H1 Award’s Banquet for the past three years. This year, the Water Follies event director, Kathy Powell, was not going to take no for answer.

     It was not easy for her to convince H1 Unlimited to have the annual award’s gala in the Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland, Washington). Some complained that snow in the passes between Seattle and the eastern side of Washington could cause havoc for owners, drivers, crews, and fans traveling over from

Steve Sposari served as race director for Seattle Seafair as well as other sites in the 1990s. He has been involved with hydroplane racing since childhood when he helped his father on Seafair’s Resources Committee. He was born in Seattle and grew up in the West Seattle  neighborhood. “Ever since I was eight years old, I’ve never missed a Seafair hydroplane race,” he says. Sposari attended Holy Rosary Grade School. “I got in big trouble one year because I was at recess; that was back in the days when they would test in May and I could hear a hydroplane running on Lake Washington,” he remembers. “I left school, got on a bus, went downtown, transferred over to Lake Washington so I could watch the hydro test there. Got in big trouble that day.”

the Seattle area. Others complained about the cost to stay overnight, compared to commuting to a Seattle location and wondered about how many people would attend.

     But Powell countered each argument and reminded H1’s interim chairman, Charlie Grooms, that Tri-Cities is the gold standard for racing and that the Tri-Cities community of 250,000 residents was deserving to host the event.

     And, with relatively short notice, Powell, along with Tri-City Water Follies volunteers and H1 volunteers, went to work to host the banquet on February 10.                                                              Continued, click here ...