STEAD, NV (Sept 16) – The Stihl National Championship Air Races completed a week’s worth of qualifying and competition under wonderful weather Sunday. And it was a history-making event for at least two classes of racing planes. International Formula One has a history that dates back to the golden days of Air Racing. These are usually home built aircraft for the sole purpose of racing. Due to their size they usually race in the morning around a 3.1875 mile course. Even though they have about 100 horsepower these little speedsters race at Indy Car speeds. First race was the Silver

RENO (Sept. 17) – Air Races came to the skies above the Stead Airport this week. For all concerned it was a challenging week and for some a throw down to see just who was the best in their class. As usual the Unlimited Gold race brings the week long meet to an end and this year the defending champion aircraft was flying in its final race for the current owner Bob Button. Playing spoiler was another champion racer owned by a many time champion Bill “Tiger” Destefani. Before the gold race began there was some excitement as the motor

RENO (Sept. 17) – Racing recap has results from two tracks that ended their season. The main Air Race article will either be out Monday or Tuesday evening. This year’s National Championship Air Races ended on a high note with one of the two close races ending the week. There is a new Unlimited Gold Champion but the race went down to the final two laps. In the end defending champion Steven Hinton made a slight miscalculation but at almost 500 miles an hour it cost him the race. Chasing Hinton was Jay Consalvi, who took advantage of the error

STEAD AIRPORT – Air Race Update has the five fastest qualifiers for this edition of this event. Due to a memory card failure the article was held up a day but now here it is. Fastest of all Jay Consalvi, flying the Unlimited Strega, a championship winning P-51. It took him two attempts and the one Tuesday afternoon was a bit exciting due to a rapidly approaching thunderstorm. “Tuesday we ran into a little bit of thunderstorms, I’ve got some cool pictures of lightning outside the canopy,” he said. “I was more concerned about my guys on top of the

STEAD AIRPORT (Sept. 12) – Air Race recap today is focused on the Unlimiteds qualifying as well as the other classes. The day it self began with pretty nice weather but that all changed during the afternoon. However between noon and 1 p.m. many of the Unlimiteds qualified. Of course one plane of interest was the modified P-51 Voodoo and now is the fastest piston powered, propeller driven plane in the world. Record setting pilot Steve Hinton strapped in and threw down the fastest lap so far. He posted a time of 59:409 seconds around the 8.0851 mile course or

STEAD AIRPORT (Sept. 11) – Air Race, day one, well things were a bit quiet although some were busy qualifying their racing aircraft for the battles to come. Sitting on the ramp testing its engine was Voodoo, now the fastest piston powered, propeller driven aircraft on the planet. Although it didn’t break the record set by Rare Bear it did the fastest pass in its attempt. To set a new record the aircraft has to do four passes along a course and be at least 1% faster than the previous record holder. They almost did it but not quite still

It was a wild week at this year’s Air Races full of unusual things as well as some great racing. STEAD (Sept. 18) – National Championship Air Races 2016 was a very different event than in previous years. While much was made about how thin Unlimited field was the other classes stepped up and one of them had the closest finish in years. Despite their numbers the Unlimiteds are still the stars of the show. And this year, one of the young lions notched his seventh championship. “You know obviously competition wise there wasn’t a lot of hard hitters out

STEAD – Air Race Update will be a short one tonight. The races ended on an upbeat with a popular pilot flying to his seventh Unlimited Championship. Still it was an interesting day with a few maydays but with only slight injury. Well slight unless you were an airplane then it was a a bit more serious. Topping the list is Steven Hinton, who not only won his race but got to play a very different role; pace plane pilot. While many races were runaways one wasn’t. In fact it was the closest race seen for that class in many

WEEK IS ALMOST OVER AND ONE MORE DAY LEFT AFTER THIS ONE. STEAD – Air Race Update has more racing, the Blues and a heat race that was a bit more exciting than one pilot planned for. I’m also going to tie up a couple of loose ends from yesterday. On Friday Pete Zaccagnino crashed his Vampire after first losing the canopy then having the engine shut down. Afterwards he took a photograph of his wrecked jet racer. Another pilot had an exciting heat race. When the Sport Heat 2D began Chiwami Takagi-Read declared a Mayday and pulled out of

Women at the Air Races subject this year is a lady mechanic, one that is looking after the motors in three jets racing at the National Championship Air Races. People like her that work on the crews hold a vital position. Without their labor pilots would be lucky to even get off the ground. Santina Estrada a single mother of two has followed her passion of being around aviation. And now she’s in charge of making the sure the pole sitting jet is ready for racing. Her love of aviation began at an early age. “My parents would take us

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. 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

As we head into the weekend the tempo begins to increase. STEAD – Air Race Update for today has the pace quickening as the event tempo increases as well as some acts performing. The Blue Angels were both sighting the area and doing a practice program. Yesterday there was a small hitch when one of the Blues that was giving press rides blew a tire on landing. That also canceled a heat for the T-6 racers. Today however the Blues did a long scouting practice then later came back for their practice performance. Yesterday this reporter made a small error.

Now things start to get serious as the tempo picks up going into the weekend. STEAD – Air Race Update for today has the final qualifying sessions, some practice time for racers and the first heat races. In the pits chane continues as Dan Angelo from Valley of Speed puts the new vintage graphics on Miss TNT, a T-6 that has won six gold titles. Over in the VIP section of the pits two Unlimiteds are on display. One is the Rare Bear while the other is #232 that Hoot Gibson flew. Sadly neither are competing this year. Not far

Racing preview for this week has a major event in our area plus the start of another racing season as well as what can be seen on TV and the Internet. The biggest biggest here is the annual National Championship Air Races, it’s the only place on the planet where six classes of aircraft race each other. In addition to the races there’s an air show with many acts as well as static displays of both military and civilian aircraft. The headliners this year are the Flying Blue Angels. For further information please go to www.airrace.org. This weekend is also

For some it was the calm before the storm, for others not so much. STEAD (Sept. 13) – Air Race Update reflects a somewhat calm Tuesday. Well calm if you qualified but for the others, well time was running out. There were also practice starts for some classes plus the first T-6 1V1 race, which was decided at the home pylon by a half of a plane length victory. Last year these were called drag races as both aircraft use a standing start. Yesterday I showed the Logo that won’t be flying. Well with some changes here is the Logo