Another intense day of air racing with two surprise visitors and one very lucky pilot.

STEAD – Air Race Update for this Friday was a day where almost everybody raced. Only the fastest T-6 racers weren’t in the air and everyone got to see a preview of Sunday’s Unlimited Gold.

The morning began with the Formula One and Biplanes running their heat races followed by the Sport class, Jets and T-6 racers.

A pair of F-35’s joined the static display area today.

After the opening ceremonies that included flag jumpers a pair of F-35’s arrived at Reno Stead Airport and took their places in the static display area. Don’t know if they’ll fly or not this weekend.

After some more races there were two unexpected visitors that did some flys by before departing to other shows.

One F-4 Rino makes a low pass down the runway after appearing it might be landing.

This year the Air Force will retire the only two F-4 Phantoms it still has flying the air show circuit. Both pilots of these aircraft gave a great display of the aircraft’s power and thundering climb out in afterburner.

A F-4 Phantom ends it’s fly by with an afterburner exit.

Then it was time for the Blue Angels to perform their practice show. Essentially they gave the crowd a look at what their show will be this weekend, full of color, speed and noise.

This time the Blue Angels were doing their practice show.

The afternoon ended with the 2A Sport Heat followed by the T-6 2B heat. Then the jets took to the air.

For Pete Zaccagnino, last year’s Gold Champion it was a race he’ll not soon forget.

Pete Zaccagnino, last year’s jet champion heads out for a heat race. One he never finished but fortunately he emerged uninjured from a hard landing.

During the event he called a Mayday and pulled up out of the race. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to make it down to where he wanted and made a hard landing.

Emergency crews rushed to his air and found he fortunately wasn’t injured. In fact he called his brother while sitting in a fire truck and told him he was all right but the aircraft was totaled.

Apparently the Vampire has a wood structure covered with metal and it didn’t survive the landing.

Speaking of damaged aircraft on Wednesday this reporter had a chance to talk with Thom Richard, owner of Precious Metal. He explained when all the parts of the aircraft are returned to Florida, with their budget, it will probably take two years to rebuild the racer.

So if all goes well we might see it back in Reno for the 2018 races. Hope so anyway.

The day ended with the five-ship Unlimited Gold race. Well Steven Hinton just flat ran away with it as no one really got close to him.

Steven Hinton returns after winning the Unlimited Gold heat race.

Czech Mate was second while Dreadnaught once again had a steady run and ended up a very distant third.

Czech Mate was second in the Unlimited Gold heat race.

The winner of the heat races for Friday are:

Formula One: Phillip Goforth (2B), Lowell Slatter (2A).

Biplane: Jeffrey Lo (3B).

Sport: Rick Vandam, (1C), Peter Balmer (2B), Jeff LaVelle (2A).

T-6: Michael Pfleger (3C), Gene McNeely (2B).

Jet: Charlie Gamilleri (3C), David Culler Jr. (2B), Rick Vandam (1A).

Unlimited: Joel Swager (1B), Steven Hinton (1A).

Now every one is getting ready for Saturday as some classes will their finals while others will race to prepare for Sunday’s championships.

For further information about the event and ticket sales please check the Air Race website at, www.airrace.org.

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