"GENTLEMEN, YOU HAD A RACE ...The end of the Reno Air Races BY JAN TEGLER ייף
Flight Journal|July - August 2023
It has been almost 59 years since legendary pilot Bob Hoover first uttered the famous words, “Gentlemen, you have a race!”
JAN TEGLER
"GENTLEMEN, YOU HAD A RACE ...The end of the Reno Air Races BY JAN TEGLER ייף

Hoover’s now iconic phrase was the cue commencing the first-ever air start for Unlimited class racers at the inaugural National Championship Air Races a few miles northeast of Reno, Nevada in 1964. In early March, the Reno Air Racing Association (RARA) announced that 2023 will be the final year that Reno-Stead Airport, the site of the event since 1966, will host the Air Races from September 13-17.

After nearly six storied decades in Reno, far surpassing the longevity of the renowned pre-war/postwar Cleveland Air Races, the National Championship Air Races—the world’s only multi-class air racing event—appear to be a casualty of concerns including “rapid area development, public safety, and the impact on the Reno-Stead Airport and its surrounding areas.”

That’s the official rationale from the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority (RTAA), which runs Reno-Stead Airport, on why it chose not to renew a contract with RARA to hold the event at the airfield.

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