The Last Reno Air Races - 2023

Some may not know, but the Reno Air Race are no more (started in 1964).  The Reno Airport Authority voted to stop the races/show.  The last show was last week, ending Sunday.  It is very much Grassroots, considering how it started ("hey, old warplanes are cheap, they are fast, lets do stuff!")

The real story behind the decision is not entirely clear at this point.  The unofficial is too much housing close to the course/airport, the suspicious is that someone wants to make a LOT of money in real estate.

I attended as a volunteer all week, with another GRM'er (my sister helps with timing logistics, specifically the Unlimited) as a Docent walking around answering questions (I know a good bit about the air races, air racing, and vintage aircraft).

To get to the "news" first.  As I told my wife, the races are never in the news unless something bad happens.  Unfortunately it was in the news, as the last T6 race on Sunday resulted in a landing accident, killing two pilots, the wreckage landing off airport in a back yard (there are big yards there).  To be clear, this had essentially NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RACING.  This was two pilots, landing at the same airport AFTER the race.  There will be an investigation, and as I tend to note on almost any accident, the primary cause will be pilot related.  It really almost always is.  Ultimately, the pilot is always responsible for acting safely.  It would be similar to two cars, that had previously been racing on a track, crashing and killing the drivers while driving their cars off the race course property on city streets.

I won't get into supposition of likely causes.  I, very fortunately, did not see the crash (it was off the approach end of the runway), but was walking through the T6 pits just after it happened and unfortunately had to hear some of the crews trying to figure things out (they announced nothing until hours after).  The T6's just lined up on the ramp after the race, and two where clearly missing (the affected crews WERE clearly notified and Ford Econoboxed out before this).  The two planes that crashed finished first and second, which made the awards ceremony a bit hard to experience.

The races were eventually canceled after the crash, which resulted in not running the final races in Sport (hopped up general aviation homebuilts mostly), Jets, and Unlimiteds.  The Unlimited race was a forgone conclusion, but the Sport could have been interesting (they can push to far and break, and there was a LOT of boost going on in the front!)

So, on to the more "good" stuff, some story and pics:

Of note is many of these pics are mine, but I am also using some of my sisters husband brothers pics (he has a very large lense, very nice camera, and access to the pylons!).  To give credit, this is his website (Reno 2023 portion) if you want to see more of his work:  https://mskirkpatrickphoto.com/reno-air-races-2023

(I am going to break this up to make it easier to read / view)

First of all, being the last race, the attendance was INSANE.  They had suffered from low attendance in the last few years (COVID not helping), so this was a stark change.  Being the last race, the merch situation got silly. They were given a limited budget to order, so things ran out quickly.  When I got there on Wednesday, they were already running low!  This is a pic of the official mech hanger on Saturday! (yes, it is almost entirely empty):

Here is shot of some of the crowd. Not a great shot I admit, I really should have gone up in the stands, but they where packed also!:

There is clearly a large military display.  I was there for the arrival after the show on Wednesday.  It was an ARRIVAL!!  First an F-18, who seemed to do a full show before landing, a C-17, who also did a bit of a show, than another F18, then a lot of noise, and one, two, three F15's (including at least one Strick Eagle).  The last F15 to fly over lite his afterburners as he passed over the stands!  Fun.  Then... an F35, another F35. then another F18, then a KC-135.  It was pretty crazy!  Here is the F-15 that lit his AB, which you can see if you look closely:

I did watch the F35 park, which was interesting, because of how they dealt with it (plugging in a laptop and such...).  The pilots where also an interesting pair.  Here is the plane: 

And here are the pilots.  Both VERY young, and the lady at least, was rather small.  Of note (not that it's relevant to the pics) is that F35 are essentially flying weapons command bunkers, and not really dog fighters.  I believe an F16 could easily kick ones butt in a dog fight, if it could get anywhere near one!

I also ran into this guy, who has been there for years.  Interesting character to say the least.  In the past, rebuilt a P-51, almost from nothing, so he decided to build himself an MB-5!! (I might explain that plane later).  Here he is with his plane ( that is a Griffon counter rotating propeller engine that you can't fully see):

On to the races:  

The essential "story" of the race, at least with the Unlimiteds (which are generally, historically, the draw) was a three horse race.  The perineal favorite, which can be characterized as essentially just putting a HUGE engine in car (the engine is not hopped up, it's just gigantic) is Dreadnought.  Dreadnought is generally capable of 450 ish mph laps (actual airspeed is of course higher) rather reliably, but really unlikely to do much more.  Here is Dreadnought.  A Hawker Seafury with a four row, 28 cylinder 4850 (that's CI BTW) engine (Mark's shot, note watermark):

The other contender is Miss America.  A long time modified air racer with a great paint scheme, and a hopped up engine.  The pilot has been trying for the past few years to best Dreadnought, but has had issues with high flying.  There is a somewhat silly FAA rule the DQ's anyone who goes over 500 ft (supposedly to keep them from going off course if they crash, but that's just absurd).

The other contender is The Bardal Special.  Also a long time raceplane, that was once known as Voodoo, but before that was The Bardal Special.  This plane has a VERY hot motor in it, and a VERY good pilot, and some parts borrowed from another long time modified Mustang racer (Strega).  He qualified at 440 mph.  The rest of the field is mostly stock planes, generally running almost 50-100 mph slower (!)

The story stared to turn a bit when, old reliable, Dreadnought, which has been running the same engine for, I think, at least 20 years, sucked an intake valve (it has 56 I think!) in qualifying (Tuesday) and landed with a dead engine.  That leaves two.

Miss America, while qualifying, got a crack in the neck of it's heat exchanger (radiator), which proceeded to fill the fuselage with steam... including the cockpit.  I don't have the pic, but my sister has one of the plan landing, with the canopy open (for obvious reason) and the whole back of the canopy covered in condensation!  This required sourcing parts from Texas! (flown in) and resulted in (a lot of work) and them missing qualifying.  They were allowed to enter the Bronze race on Friday though, which would allow them to work there way up to Gold on Sunday (there were significantly faster then all other planes except Bardall).

Come Saturday, charging through the Silver field (needing to finish first to bump up to gold), they unfortunately ran wide on the last pylon and cut the show deadline (the line toward the crowed).  This resulted in a DQ and moved to last, would have to run Silver on Sunday.  The Sunday Silver and Gold Races where not run (where were waiting for the Sunday Silver when the crash happened).

However, thankfully, for whatever reason, on Friday, Bardall decided to push it a bit, so I did get to see and most importantly hear (I was worried I wouldn't) a fully modified Mustang run (what was at least almost) full bore around the track for that last time.  The result was a 469 mph lap speed (likely over 500 mph airspeed), and some crazy bank angles to get around the track!  Here is an "OK" shot of him rounding the final pylong.  BTW, bank angle is directly related to G's being pulled.  This is a high G turn! 

Bardall of course won, and there was not final showdown.  It's seems likley Bardall was significanly faster than Miss America, but it would have been fun to watch either way.

Some other stuff of interest:

This is the top Sport Racer.  Note the twin turbos!:

This is a cutaway of the Wright 4350 engine (the one in Dreadnought):

This is a cutaway of a Bristol Centarus sleave valve engine (with some CRAZY sleave valve gearing)

A Falconer engine in a Thunder Mustang (kit build):

The rocker assembly (and cam) of Bardalls Merlin engine (they are a known weak point):

A VERY nice razor back P47, with the turbo in it! (exhaust is in the tail, in front of the tail wheel):

An always interesting P-63 King Cobra (mid-engined):

Bob Hovers old plane, Old Yeller:

A very striking (VERY pretty plane) restoration of an old Thompson Trophy race winner, Thunderbird:

And a crazy shot that happend when the sun dropped below a cloud cover at the end of one of the days.  Seemed like an appropriate sign off for the races in Reno:

I heard this was the last Reno and wanted to go but - life. Sad that it ended on that note. From what I have heard the races ended due to a variety of reasons. There is/was talk of moving the event to another location. 

Hm, I wonder if this was why I saw F-35s last weekend?  I live in the SF bay area, and there were two F-35s flying over me at lunch, lined up for landing at Moffett.  Perhaps that was a stop on the way to or from Reno?

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

Hm, I wonder if this was why I saw F-35s last weekend?  I live in the SF bay area, and there were two F-35s flying over me at lunch, lined up for landing at Moffett.  Perhaps that was a stop on the way to or from Reno?

Possibly.  I asked the pilot where they were from and she said Luke AFB.  But maybe a stop over?

This country is becoming so antiseptic they're going to put us all in a rubber room with a helmet and full gear, feed us high calorie liquid through a straw, pipe in sports and pron and expect us to be happy about it. 

I'm sounding like my grandfather now.  

Get off my lawn!!

anywho, thanks for those great photos @aircooled

A 401 CJ said:

This country is becoming so antiseptic they're going to put us all in a rubber room with a helmet and full gear, feed us high calorie liquid through a straw, pipe in sports and pron and expect us to be happy about it. 

 

<Pssst--we're in the Matrix...>

Yet another aviation thing I was alive for and missed. Damn.

Great photos and a great back story!!! Thanks for sharing Air!!!  

Lots of talk of new locations. A local C&C regular was the airport manager at Stead for years.  I did see him there, and will certainly talk to him when I see him again locally.

There is a group trying to set something up near Las Vegas, but this is not the Reno RARA organization, it's another one and there is currently zero infrastructure where they want to do it (no runways) so it will need a lot of money.

I did hear of what might be a good potential spot, but I won't jinx it. It's a bit more central but still west. 

We will see. It will likely be at least two years though.  Figuring out / rebuilding the logistics could be challenging and take time.

In reply to aircooled :

XLNT pics

Not terribly far down the road is the Manzanar airstrip near Lone Pine CA. Far enough from any population to not be an issue. Only used sparingly (in May) by a very responsible group of drivers. 

In reply to L5wolvesf :

Yeah, there are some conflicting needs in effect.  The location needs to have at least three runways (typical Airforce layout) for emergency landings, needs to be somewhat isolated from houses/populations BUT also needs to have significant hotel and population access reasonably close, for racers as well as spectators.

E.g. Mohave would be fine (they actually did have races there long ago)... except, there are very few hotels near by and it's still a good drive from Los Angeles.  Probably best to stay out of CA of course, they might require electric planes only in a few years!

Honestly, an electric plane race is not a bad idea, range is the primary issue with them and racers don't have to go far, but most would likely have to be trucked into the airport since they will be optimized for short sprints.  Also, the old Thompson Trophy races might be a thing for electrics.  They were cross country speed runs, but there would be a LOT of battery swap stops with current tech.

Here is a video of the engine failure with Dreadnought.  You can see by the bank angle he was moving along pretty good.  The mechanic for them said the failed intake valve caused a disruption in the intake that essentially caused the engine to stall.  As you can hear, it resulted in a rather strange noise.   You can also see, the pilot did not feather the propeller (make them flat to reduce drag).  This was likely either because the engine was still running at low power/idling or he wanted the drag for his steep approach.

The basic practice is to trade speed for altitude as quickly as possible and figure out the best runway to take, realizing the plane has a lot more drag (no engine power) than normal.  It normally results in going in high and a rather steep approach to the runway, as it's really bad if you end up short.

Here is a video of Bardall on it's 470 mph qualifying run, from one of the pylons on the backside of the course.  Note bank angle and the sound I mentioned.  The pilot BTW, Steve Hinton, is the son of a famous unlimited air race pilot who flew the rather famous Red Baron, Griffon engine modified mustang (which he did crash in off airport at Reno, but did survive).  He is very good / smooth.

I live there the wrong season to witness this, but damn if I didn't want to go. Didn't realize it was ending. That part sucks.

Great photos and writeup aircooled!

Congrats on getting to be there at the end. I always wanted to go, but never got to.

Considering the cubic dollars these speed junkies have invested in this, I'm not too worried about their ability to find a new place to play.

In reply to aircooled :

The most distinctive exhaust note ever.

Thank you for an extensive and captivating report on the final races.  It's a shame they had to end with tragedy, but like so many pursuits of speed, tragedy is often in attendance.

The Reno races were a bucket list thing for me, but I never did make it there.  I hope they find a new home, and enough participation to continue.  Maybe that will give those of us that never made it a chance to go...  I've seen plenty of these old warbirds fly, but the racing versions at full chat are something else...   

Interestingly, I live about 15 minutes from Ryan Falconer's shop, though I've never been there either.

I found some more pics of interest.  There was an Allison V-3420 in a truck bed there.  It's essentially two of the standard Allison's (such as in the P38) joined together (2600 hp at military power):

The start of one of the Unlimited races:

The start of a T6 race (line abreast):

A nice looking P51:

Check out the tug (the plane was Clay Lacey's and is an old race plane):

Another sunset pic:

And some artwork someone made:

Thanks for the write up and great pics. Didn't realize Bardahl used to be Voodoo. I was there on Friday and saw Hinton win the heat in Bardahl - looked awesome. Shame about the crash on Sunday, I hope they manage to get somewhere to race again.

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

Hm, I wonder if this was why I saw F-35s last weekend?  I live in the SF bay area, and there were two F-35s flying over me at lunch, lined up for landing at Moffett.  Perhaps that was a stop on the way to or from Reno?

 

I don't know the exact planes, but we have Tinker Air Force Base on the SE side of OKC. So about every two months we have a few fighter planes do the rounds around the city. 

Super cool to hear and see them overhead. 

Just a few minor updates:  Bardall Special is not the same plane as Voodoo (as I previously stated) it is the same plane as the original Bardall Special that was raced in the 60's, and was also raced as Section Eight later (more stock looking) .  It DOES have the scoop from Voodoo though which they borrowed for the race.  Voodoo is currently in Chino CA and hasn't raced in a few years.

Registration history of Bardall Special: https://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=23143

A pic of Voodoo for reference:

Also of interest for those into warbird restoration, probably the premiere warbird restoration shop/location, the Chino CA Planes of Fame Museum, is no longer able to do airshows because of building houses around the airport (common story, used to be all dairy farms).  They are rumored to be moving to Santa Maria CA, which is north of Santa Barbara.  This will hopefully be a huge improvement for all involved, but they have a LOT of stuff to move and I am a bit suspicious, central coat CA, may not be entirely accepting of a bunch of old leaded gas burning airplanes(!)  A pic for reference to show what they need to move.  Most of those buildings/hangers are packed full of planes and parts BTW!

A wider shot of the airport to show what they are dealing with.  Those farms to the north used to completely surround the airport.  

Some more info on the T-6 crash:  The pilots where communicating in the pattern with their positions (e.g. "Race X, turning base").  The colliding plane (from eye witness and apparently photo evidence) essentially hit the other from the side (likely rear side).  First hitting the left wing, taking the left aileron off, the prop striking the down the left wing, then hitting the plane rear of the cockpit, taking the tail off. 

I could rather confidently guess at what the NTSB findings will be on this, but won't.  The pilot of the one that finished first, and was run into, apparently lived a few miles from me (a coworker says his family posted something on social media).  The plane was based in Van Nuys, CA (part of a group I regularly see flying around, funerals etc)

aircooled said:

Just a few minor updates:  Bardall Special is not the same plane as Voodoo (as I previously stated) it is the same plane as the original Bardall Special that was raced in the 60's, and was also raced as Section Eight later (more stock looking) .  It DOES have the scoop from Voodoo though which they borrowed for the race.  Voodoo is currently in Chino CA and hasn't raced in a few years.

A pic of Voodoo for reference:

Thanks for the update. Have there been any changes in the rules regarding modifications for the unlimited class? All the planes this year looked pretty stock, last time I was there I remember more modified looking planes like Voodoo with small canopies etc

No rules updates, just economic realities.  Few are willing to put the money into a top tier unlimited anymore (there never was much money).  A racing Merlin will likely cost over $75,000(?, probably more), and they traditionally don't last very long.

The only new rules they have added is a minimum weight for planes.  This was the result of planes like the Pond Special and the Sport class planes (the top two this year would have qualified 4th and 5th in the Unlimiteds this year!).

A P51 can almost get turned over in the wake of a Sea Fury (big plane, big engine, big prop, big turbulence).  Something like a Lanceair or Glassair would be thrown around very seriously!

Pond Racer for reference.  Note size of pilot compared to plane.  Very small, very light.