GRNDP51 wrote:
I actually really love this whole post. To begin with, the lottery idea has me laughing. A couple of my friends and I buy powerball tickets every week specifically with the intentions of fixing Reno LOL. Buy Riff Raff make it full race and give it to Hoot to race for me, buy Goldfinger tear the scoop off and make a GG replica painted like the black Miss Foxy Lady, and get a couple rare warbirds to race as stockers in the field. Only takes one ticket to win. It's actually pretty surprising that out of all the people winning let's even say 20 million (which is incredibly low for a powerball), nobody has won and done something to help Reno. Think about the 200k fans that attend, the friends that they know that would spare them some cash, and then all of the other Reno fans that don't attend! That's getting close to 5-600k and none of us have won!!! Of course not everyone buys tickets LOL, but the chances are high. I still don't understand how a guy like Rod can not want to bring the Bear racing. Everyone knows he has endless piles of cash and Reno really isn't THAT expensive... once you have the plane that is...
That's a typical thought that a lot of people have about so-called "rich" people. Just because somebody has a lot of assets and may be worth a lot of money doesn't necessarily mean they have the discretionary income to give to "money pits" such as air racing. Don't get me wrong, I love Reno Air Racing and support it fully, but there is no way you can break any where remotely close to even at the Unlimited Gold level in the top echelon. Yes, Rod has a lot of money, but there is a lot that we don't know about him. Do we know all of his personal finances, perhaps how many people or family and friends that he is supporting, or the donations or things he does for charity, etc.? Most billionaires tend to not talk about how they help people out who are less fortunate than them. I know Rod is heavily involved in charities. Is this the case with Rod - I don't know - but you can't assume that just because he is wealthy that he has the discretionary income to afford an unlimited racing budget. For example, Rod just recently went through a divorce and lost about 1.5 Billion USD. That is nothing to sneeze at. Now, he is worth a little more than 1 Billion USD. Is that enough to race with? Sure, but we don't know about his other expenses, investments, debts, etc.
Rod Lewis came at a time when Mike Brown suddenly got pissed at RARA, left the Reno Air Races and sold all of his warbirds and retired to Hawaii. There was a huge void, and Rod Lewis filled that and provided a significant amount of support and airplanes to fill the fields in the various Unlimited classes. One could say that he effectively "carried" the Reno Air Races, or at least was a major contributor to the success of the Reno Air Races during the late 2000's when RARA was potentially facing a "slump" if he hadn't participated otherwise. When RARA "takes someone for granted" like they seem to have done with Rod, it doesn't take a fool to realize that nobody likes being taken advantage of, especially multi-billionaires. I'm guessing that is one factor, plus his divorce, and the Bear's constant problems and lack of success recently, that seems to have sucked the energy out of his motivation to participate in Air Racing the last few years.
So, I disagree with the statement that he has "endless piles of cash". We don't have access to his financials and balance sheets and thus can't make those kind of definitive statements. With all of his investments, holdings, and charitable contributions, he may, in fact, be hurting financially. I don't know, but we certainly can't rule out that possibility.
I would venture a guess that if RARA treated all Unlimited owners/pilots a little better that people such as Rod Lewis would come back in droves. A large part of that equation is money as mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, everything revolves around big sponsorship. Without that, there is no Reno Air Racing. We must face reality and realize that the average American - outside of specialized "niche" aviation groups - have little to no interest in Unlimited air racing. It's something that's not relatable to the average person. Most people don't fly or have airplanes - therein lies the problem. At least with NASCAR, every spectator/fan has a car and has driven a "fast" sports car of some type, so they can relate to the thrill and adrenaline of speed and car racing. So, that, in my opinion, is the fundamental difference why NASCAR is ultra successful and Reno Air Racing is not.