Air Race recap has first time the fastest Unlimiteds went head to head. Plus other winners.

STEAD AIRPORT – Today the fastest Unlimiteds finally took to the skies in their first showdown of the year. And a popular racer showed that it was back after holding off another popular aircraft.

On the start Stewart Dawson, flying Rare Bear, took the point with Hoot Gibson in Strega right behind him. Lap after lap they ran nose-to-tail and sometimes almost wingtip-to-wingtip.

In the end Dawson prevailed with Gibson not far behind while Steven Hinton cruised to a solid third place. Dennis Sanders, in Dreadnought was fourth ahead of Curt Brown in Sawbones.

In the other heat Mark Watt, in Argonaut, was able to keep the lead despite the best efforts of Brian Sanders in 924. This heat had the most aircraft with eight taking the start.

In the two Jet heat races Phil Fogg was the 2B heat winner while Doug Matthews was the 2C heat victor.

With the size of the Sport class it took four heats to get everyone on the course. Heat 2D was won by Tim Cone while Jason Rovey was the 2C winner.

In the 2C heat there was a three-way duel for third that saw rookie Chiwami Takagi-Read holding off James F. Wilson Jr., and Kirk Murphy. They were never far apart after their battle for position began.

David Robinson won Heat 2B while the 2A winner was John Parker, who left everyone behind as he rocketed around the course in his Thunder Mustang.

The T-6 racers got two heats with Chris LeFave winning Heat 2C while Chris Rushing was the 2B winner. Tomorrow the faster racers will take to the skies as the class is sorted into the Bronze, Silver and Gold groups.

In the Biplane class Anthony Oshinuga won the 2B heat while Tom Aberle rocketed away from everyone in the 2A heat.

Jay Jones won the Formula 1 2B heat and in heat 2A, defending champion Steve Senegal scored a runaway victory. Behind him Vito Wypraechtiger was second ahead of Elliot Seguin and Thom Richard, the current leader in World Cup points..

During the afternoon the Breitling Jet Team put on a performance of precision aerobatics including one where one of the solo pilots was spiraling around a group of planes while they passed by the grandstands.

Although the F-16 Viper didn’t perform, the B-25 did some fly bys and another pilot did aerobatics to entertain the fans.

Tomorrow it all begins again right after 8 a.m. when the IF1 and Biplane racers compete in another set of heat races. Then, after a couple more heat races there is the opening ceremonies.

Finally, around 3 p.m. the fastest Unlimiteds take to the sky again to see who starts on the pole, closest to the pace jet, on Sunday. And that will be the time for the fastest to really show their hands.

Hope to see you there.

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