Busy Monday at the air Races.

Stead (Sept. 12) – Air Race Update for Monday is about a day full of activity.

With weather moving in on Tuesday the pace was intense as the smaller and other classes all scrambled to get in practice sessions or post qualifying times.

On the lighter side there was a “Moose Sighting,” by the Voodoo pits. Wild life and aviation photographer Moose Petersen, his wife and son paid a visit as they were getting a crew portrait for the team.

Photographer Mose Petersen, his wife and son paid a visit to the Air Races. They were making a crew photo for the Voodoo.

He was only here today and off to his next assignment in the Midwest after a brief stop home.

On the other news one logo can’t fly and had to be removed from a T-6. Seems the “Pole Dancer,” logo is copyrighted so once the team discovered this they changed the name to “Reno Dancer.”

Due to a copyright problem this nose art had to be changed on a T-6 racer.

And qualifying was a bit exciting for three pilots.

While making his run in the morning session Sport 72’s pilot Abe Gaskins got a start when he was notified that the tire on his nose wheel had come off although the rim was still in place.

He declared a mayday and made a safe landing but he had posted a good qualifying time.

Sport pilot Elliot Seguin also had an interesting and what might be an expensive qualifying session. After posting the second fast time of 379.791 he had to declare a mayday due to an engine problem.

He too made a safe landing.

Then during the Unlimited morning session Brian Saunders flying Dreadnaught declared a mayday due to his engine running rough. After a safe landing the plane was able to taxi under its own power.

Dreadnaught taking off for its morning qualifying session, which ended in a mayday after the motor started running rough.

This all happened after he posted the second fast time of 440.432.

During the afternoon session Czech Mate did go up but didn’t post a qualifying time.

Czech Mate going up for the afternoon session. But it’s pilot didn’t post a qualifying time.

About that same time Steven Hinton took Voodoo up and set the fast time of 475.627 mph. So for now he has the Unlimited pole.

Steven Hinton takes off in Voodoo. He would post the fastest Unlimited qualifying time.

The fastest time of the day however goes to jet racer Rich Vandam, who set a time of 513.177 mph.

John Parker flew his Thunder Mustang to the fastest Sport Plane speed of 389.791 mph.

John Parker in his Thunder Mustang posted the fastest Sport Plane time.

In the T-6 ranks two pilots broke the class speed record in their qualifying runs.

Nick Macy in Six Cat posted a new T-6 record as well as the fastest time.

Fastest was Nick Macy in Six Cat as his speed was 251.792 mph while Dennis Buehn in Midnight Miss III posted a speed of 249.277 mph.

Dennis Buehn also broke the T-6 record when he set the second fastest qualifying time.

This year there will be a new Biplane champion and as of Monday Jeff Rose had the fastest time of 221.946 while over in the Formula 1 ranks Lowell Slatter is fastest at 253.787.

There will be more qualifying, weather permitting, on Tuesday with the sessions beginning at 8 a.m. For those that need more time the final sessions begin at 8 a.m. on Wednesday and end sometime after 11 a.m.

That’s it for now. All the times posted were classed as “Unofficial,” so things might change.

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