Forty-five years later, H1 hydroplane racing is back.

This Labor Day Weekend, Coeur d'Alene will host the Diamond Cup 2013. The organizer behind its triumphant return is Doug Miller, president of the CDA Diamond Cup LLC, local guy and longtime race enthusiast. With many years of professional experience in outside sales and marketing, Miller said that hydroplane racing has "consumed" him for the past year.

What makes hydroplane racing so special?

I was 9 years old when I saw my first race and I guess I never got over it.

Hydroplane racing truly is a spectacle. It defies a lot of the rules of inertia and gravity that would allow a boat to go 220-plus mph on water. It's a family event, a multi-day event where the teams and the drivers are accessible all throughout the weekend.

It's hard to describe the energy level - it really is addictive.

It's adrenaline. It's the motorsports equivalent of the runner's high. It's the same thing an Ironman athlete experiences. Once it's in you, you don't want to let go of it.

Have you ever driven a boat yourself?

I've never wanted to be a boat racer - it's extremely dangerous. Even with today's boats, it's still extremely dangerous. I admire those people who have chosen boat racing for a career or a hobby.

Also, you can spend half a million so fast on one of these boats. It's really hard to do if you don't have a half million plus.

I've raced motorcycles, but never a boat.

What keeps you going when your job gets overwhelming?

The fact that my heart is in it 100 percent. My whole motivation is to hopefully see another crop of 9-year-olds come forward and experience boat racing the way I experienced it. And I speak for a lot of 60- and- 70-year-olds today who share those thoughts with me. It's time to put some great memories into our kids.

Kids can come into our pit areas, meet the drivers, hang out with the teams and the crews just like I did in the '60s. That part of the sport hasn't changed and it's really the beauty of boat racing.

Our goal is to once again be Idaho's No. 1-attended sporting event.

What makes this sport so accessible to its fans?

It's just their culture and nature. I think another part of it is because they don't race 30 weekends a year. Their energy is very high and they're not burned out halfway through the system.

Also, for many of the teams, their young families travel with them.

Speaking of families, is yours a big supporter of hydroplane racing?

My wife, Patricia, has been very supportive and it's been very hard at times - just as many setbacks as gains. But she went to her first boat race in the Tri-Cities and she was pleasantly surprised. She didn't get as high as I did from the race, but she drank the Kool-Aid for the weekend.

Why did you decide to bring the races back to Coeur d'Alene?

This is my fifth year of working with the Unlimited Hydroplanes. In 2009 we brought in the exhibition boats. After the last exhibition in 2011, where we had between 42,000 and 45,000 people show up, that really was a major turning point to looking into bringing the boats back on a full race schedule.

The vintage boats will be coming back this time as well.

What made Coeur d'Alene attractive for race organizers?

It's hard to find today a body of water large enough that has enough real estate that can accommodate the pit, spectators and parking for the event.

We have one of the best viewing areas for both land and water - we have 2.2 miles of land real estate that the entire course is viewable from. We're putting in over a mile of log boom for water viewing - basically the same situation as at Seafair - and boats can tie up to the log boom for the weekend. We can handle over 400 boats at the log boom.

What about the course?

The racecourse is a floating racecourse that only exists for that one moment of the year. It's not a fixed racecourse you can see out there the rest of the year.

It comes with a half-mile no-wake zone, which will help enormously with patrolling the area.

What's the break-even point for Coeur d'Alene in this?

We only need 12,000 to 15,000 people to show up and we're good. Businesses in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area have stepped up in providing in-kind services for us and that has been our savior.

Also, sponsors are continuing to come in, which is also providing great relief for us.

What's in it for the drivers beside honor?

They race for the end-of-season championship and payoff. In between, they race for points - national points.

The race sites have to come up with the sanctioning fee of $175,000, which we pay to H1 Unlimited. Compared to NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) and NASCAR, for example, it's a bargain.

If we had a large corporate sponsor here that could put in extra money, we would love to be able to offer that to the teams. That's the future goal we're striving for.

Are you saying there won't be a purse at the Coeur d'Alene races?

Correct.

Where does money come into it for the drivers?

Money is the beginning, middle and end of everything we do on this planet.

End of season is when the prize money comes in, but they keep the actual amount very close to the vest. I'd estimate the final purse at tens of thousands of dollars.

The largest financial boon for the teams is the race in Doha, Qatar, at the beginning of the season. The teams are paid very well to attend the race there.

And there are sponsorship packages as well. The racing world is totally dependent today on corporate sponsorship.

How well do you feel you're handling the pressure of your job?

It's about logistics. You have to break things down into smaller cells and delegate. That's truly the hardest thing for me, letting go of the different components. In the last three years, I've had to do the lion's share, but as it is now, it's gotten so big I have to delegate.

Having to keep the I's dotted and the T's crossed in the permitting process has been very frustrating.

That's the power of being a D-student. An A-student would have given up - logic would have entered in a long time ago and they would have moved on. A D-student just doesn't know any different.

What will you be doing during race weekend?

The nice thing about the event is that at 6 a.m. Thursday, we turn over the operation to H1 Unlimited: the race site, the course, the pit, the racing and the operational part of the race. They won't give it back to us until 8 p.m. Sunday night.

Our role during that time is to be in support of H1 Unlimited in helping them with the event, so I'll still have to try to figure out how to be in three places at one time.