EC Enterprises bringing sprint boat racing to valley this weekend

Jun. 4—EC Enterprises Motorsports Park is bringing sprint boat racing to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley coming up on Saturday and Sunday.

The sport — which consists of high-speed boats racing around a shallow, twisting track — originated in Australia and New Zealand during the 1980s and there are only three tracks in all of the United States, according to EC Enterprises owner Eric Christiansen. The new track on the EC property outside Lewiston is one of them.

The newly built track will hold its first sprint boat races at 10 a.m. Saturday on Albright Grade.

The event has brought racers from around the country, including Lawrence Garrett Mitchell, a popular YouTuber and race car driver known as "Cleetus McFarland." Mitchell has 4.37 million subscribers on YouTube and has gained over 1.84 billion views.

It also has also drawn interest from retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle who will be participating in one of the races this weekend.

"He's coming, gonna race in our first race here," Christiansen said of Mitchell. "He's also bringing NASCAR legend Greg Biffle with him. That's stunning — for the LC Valley that is unbelievable. That's got everybody excited."

Christiansen said he believes that his track is different from the others because of the surrounding land. He said that the hill it rests on brings a stadium type look to the track and that is what makes the venue so special.

"There are some people out here that claim this is going to be the coolest track in the world for spectators," Christiansen said, "because no other sprint boat track (has) a stadium type look where you can look down and watch the races. Other tracks have some terrace seating, which is cool. But our whole entire seating is that way — there's not a bad seat in the house."

Christiansen said the sport is definitely an extreme one. He said accidents can happen and if a driver misses a turn or hits the side of the track they will shoot out onto the bank.

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There are three different classes of boats racing this weekend.

"There's a super-modified class. That's kind of your 500 horsepower class. that's the smallest class motor-wise," Christiansen said. "And then you go to the 400-A class, and they're gonna be in the 650-750 horsepower (range).

"Then you got your super boat class. That is actually unlimited — you can do anything you want. Guys are (at) 800-2,000 horsepower."

The top three racers in each class of boat will be given prize money and trophies.

There will also be food and drink vendors at the event. The venue will allow coolers, so people can bring water and soda, but no outside alcohol can be brought in due to state law.

There will be free camping available for fans as well. Christiansen said that the upper wheat field will be made available for people to camp on and that there will be parking down below.

Christiansen said that sales have been very high for the event. He said that they will have to cap the tickets so they don't create too much traffic in Lewiston.

"We're gonna cap this event, so I would not wait to get your tickets until Saturday (and) Sunday. I don't know if they'll be any," Christiansen said.

Junt can be reached at 208-848-2258, tjunt@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @TrevorJunt.