Aviation History: Gentlemen, you have a race
Air racing comes back in a big way
Beyond the spectacle, prewar air racing significantly advanced aviation technology, usually in pursuit of big purses. After the wars, the show was back, but the motivations were different. Now it was about fun, competition, and the chance to own and fly a piece of history.
Although races had always been held sporadically, when Bill Stead offered up his ranch outside Reno, Nevada, in 1964, the Reno National Championship Air Races were born, and the era of postwar racing was on. Surplus T–6s and SNJ–5s could be purchased for $4,000, and mighty Unlimited warbirds weren’t that much further out of reach.
Today Reno is the only place you can find closed-course close racing, but soon after the event began in 1964, races popped up everywhere from Cleveland to Phoenix, and Miami to Mojave, California.
In its inaugural year Reno featured the Formula One, Biplane, and Unlimited classes. The T–6 class started in 1968, and solidified its status as the closest of all race classes. Winner Hendrik Otzen beat Richard Sykes by 0.2 seconds. Bob Love’s P–51D Bardahl Special qualified at 395 miles per hour in 1964. In 2011, Steve Hinton set the record for the fastest Unlimited qualifying ever at Reno, flying the P–51 Strega at 499 miles per hour.
Stories such as this can be found in Freedom to Fly: AOPA and the History of General Aviation in America, celebrating the eightieth anniversary of AOPA, written by AOPA writers, now available for a discounted price of $34.95.
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