CHAMBERLAIN - So how did Tom Davis convince his new hometown to invite a bunch of boat racers to come and play on the Missouri River?

And how did he get the racers to come not only to South Dakota, but to Chamberlain for the Pepsi Racing Power Cup Challenge, the first-ever hydroplane racing event in the state on July 12 and July 13.

"There was some luck and some perseverance," said Davis, president and founder of River City Racin', host of the event.

Davis moved to Chamberlain in 2001 and joined the local Chamber of Commerce.

"As part of the Chamber, one of the things you always try to do is bring tourists into your community, " Davis said. "I kept saying, 'The river, the river,' and some of the local people who had grown up around here were taking it for granted. It wasn't a big thing to them."

While living in Phoenix several years ago, Davis had become hooked on boat racing on nearby Firebird Lake. He decided to ask for permission to pursue a similar event in Chamberlain. "They said, 'Go for it.'"

There was initial pessimism that the Unlimited Light Hydroplane Racing Association, based in Tukwila, Wash., and racing in Seattle's Puget Sound and the Detroit River in Michigan, would even look at a river running through a cow town in South Dakota, Davis said.

That turned out to be the easy part.

"They knew exactly where we were, because they race both on the East and West Coast," he said. "When they travel across the country, a lot of them take I-90. They even knew where Al's Oasis is."

"They cross that river every year and make a joke about how we race every river in the country. Why not the Missouri?'" he said.

A test involving four of the ULHRA boats last year confirmed that the site would work. After negotiations, Davis and River City Racin' signed a three-year pact to host the ULHRA boats in Chamberlain.

About 16 of the ULHRA boats and more than 5,000 spectators are expected for the two-day event.

The course, centered in front of the Cedar Shores Resort north of the I-90 bridge crossing, will be an oval 1.25 miles in length, with half-mile long straightaways and eighth-mile turns.

"The spectator view is 360 degrees. There's no spot they can't see the whole track," he said.

Davis said many of those booking admission tickets online are coming from surrounding states.

"We're drawing a lot of out-of-staters into our state," Davis said. "And the best thing is that they have to come through a lot of South Dakota to get here, so they're going to be spending a lot of money here. South Dakota as a whole is going to reap the benefit of this."

Motels in Pierre and Mitchell are booking overflow for the event," he said.

"This isn't just a Chamberlain event. It's a Central South Dakota event," Davis said. "We're hoping in three to five years this will be a landmark event for South Dakota," he said.

The South Dakota race will be filmed for broadcast on SPEED Channel's Lucas Oil On The Edge television series.