AIR RACING: Vegas Style!

Air Classics, Feb 2004 by Larsen, James W Jr

AVIATION NATION HAS BIG PLANS FOR UNLIMITED RACING

Can Unlimited Class air racing support a new venue? Will a new venue be anything but good for the world's fastest motorsport? These questions have definitely been on the mind of Bob Avery, CEO of World of Wings. To help create answers for these questions, Bob has teamed with Boyd Gaming of Las Vegas to promote and sponsor demonstrations of Unlimited air races at the Aviation Nation Airshow held annually at Nellis Air Force Base north of Las Vegas.

Aviation Nation is the official airshow of Nellis AFB which is home of the USAF Thunderbirds, Red Flag, the Air Force Weapons School, and Air-to-Ground Operations School. Unlimited air racing was first introduced at Aviation Nation in 2002 and met with enthusiastic crowd approval. Federal government reg' illations prohibit awarding prizes or money for events held on a military base, so these air races have been invitational and strictly demonstrations.

Aviation Nation 2003 was held on 15-16 November and the air race was expected to feature a half-dozen of the fastest Unlimiteds including Rare Bear and Dago Red. An unfortunate combination of pilot illness, aircraft mechanical problems, and poor weather conditions around the country prevented half the field from showing up. Three Unlimiteds and a Thunder Mustang did show. Skip Holm brought Dago Red, Ron Buccarelli flew his Griffon-powered Precious Metal, Dan Martin piloted his P-51D Ridge Runner 111, and John Parker added his Thunder Mustang to the gaggle.

The race course at Nellis has no pylons, so the pilots scoped-out a groundtrack pattern during a familiarization and practice session on the Friday before the show. Skip acted as "choreographer" for the "make-it-up-as-you-go" race scenario which included high-speed low-level dashes parallel to the crowd line and numerous position changes throughout the race. Ultimately, spectators were treated to an exciting display of what air racing is like. They even witnessed an unplanned Mayday when John Parker's Thunder Mustang blew its engine during the race on Sunday. he landed safely.

The Nellis AFB show is renowned for its prolific displays of high-decibel military aircraft - and there is little doubt that this draws thousands of spectators. In contrast, it was interesting to see the crowd respond enthusiastically to the races which were decidedly less ear-shattering. One could actually hear spectators cheering for individual racers as the planes passed each other in simulated competition.

Will this positive reception mean we can expect to see in the near future a real air race at Las Vegas? Aviation Nation attracts weekend crowds of nearly 500,000 people but this level of attendance is most certainly influenced by the show's no-cost admission and the fact that Nellis is easily reached by highcapacity roads convenient to Las Vegas. These factors considered, there was encouraging evidence that air racing is a crowd-pleasing spectator sport with a widespread following. Las Vegas has the infrastructure and economic stability to support a first-class air racing event.

The Aviation Nation experience has shown that Unlimited Air Racing can support an expanded venue. However, for Las Vegas-style air racing to make the transition from demonstration to actual competition racing, a suitable site other than Nellis - will be needed. Bob Avery and World of Wings are working on that!