Neal Nurmi wrote:
At the same time prize money has largely dried up. Jimmy's crash tripled Reno's insurance cost and it was not cheap before. Audiences are thinning and young people are not coming in to replace us geezers in the seats.
The best racing is in the "lesser" classes these days. The Sport and Formula 1 classes had great Racing this year, but they don't bring in paying spectators.
So Reno is struggling and the future is unclear. America has had airplane racing for a hundred years now. I'd hate to see the sport fade away.
Regarding the Warbirds, I don't think that running around Reno at moderate power is any harder on the machinery than doing airshow passes -- much less aerobatics. The audiences do love seeing P-51s, Sea Furies, P-40s etc. rumbling around the pylons -- even at 300 mph -- and the pilots absolutely love being able to legally fly low. So why not? Maybe this can save the Sport...
I think this is the gist of it. Higher expenses, less spectators, and less interest by youngsters in "real" things in this digital age where virtual reality runs rampant will not help unlimited racing one bit. I don't for a minute think we will see new "super racers" emerge anymore. I mean, we even have several current ones which are not being entered (or in some cases, getting finished by their owners). As for September Fury I would not be the least surprised if it will be made back into a stock warbird in due time. And haven't we made much fun about the chances of Dago Red showing up as a TF-51...
As for the last part, I do agree that people would show up just to see these fighters fly low around the racecourse. On an air racing website I did suggest that one should try to incorporate a longer race, in the vein of the old Mojave/ San Diego races of the 70s. This could appease warbird owners who don't want to cut up their planes, nor invest in a race engine. Make the rules not so much "unlimited", but rather "limited" like the T-6 class. Run them through quals and then divide the planes up into two races, one for Friday and one for Saturday. Those qualifying in the odd number will race on Friday, even numbers on Saturday. The top half qualifiers are entered into the main event on Sunday. This was done in Cleveland if I remember correctly. Keep the Fri/ Sat races shorter, like 125 miles and the major race 250 miles, and incorporate strategy like a pit- stop. Might not win many friends in die- hard race fan circles where one want to see Mustangs pull 130 in of MP, but I feel that our world is disappearing into the distance anyway (at 500mph)! Try to attract a sponsor for each race (remember Cleveland; Kendall, Sohio, Tinnerman, Thompson). It might be easier to get one sponsor for each race than for the whole shebang, and one would imagine it is better business to have a specific race run in your company name.
Now why haven't RARA already hired me...
T J