Redbull Air Race DFW 2014

camping spot purchased

We'll be in RV camping spot #76 (see camping map here: http://www.texasmotorspeedway.com/docs/default-source/Maps-Diagrams/vip-camping-map.pdf?sfvrsn=0). The RV camping area is seen on this map (http://www.texasmotorspeedway.com/fan-guide/accomodations/track-maps-seating-charts). It is south of the speedway and is labeled "VIP Camping Area"

Feel free to come by Friday night or after the races Saturday. With no idea how many people could show up, I'm not going to attempt to bring beer and food for everybody. But we'll have a grill and plenty of cooler space if you want to BYOB and BYOFood.

shuttle transportation?

Do any of you know if there will be shuttle transportation to the hotels or the surrounding areas?
I called Hampton Inn and they said no-go.
I will have my car, but would like to get a beer or two during the races so it's either that or drive sober.

Grrrr We can't make it

Well life has intruded with our plans to attend the Red Bull race.
I have 2 tickets available. PU103 row 46 seats 13 and 14.

I can email the tickets (they are in my name) however the hangar passes are hard copy only.

$50 total gets both days tickets (2 seats) in pdf format and the hangar passes if you want to pay for fedex.

I have not cancelled the room at the Hampton yet for Friday nite through Sunday nite. I do not know it that can be transferred or not.

If you are interested, email me at [email protected]

hotel for Red Bull

I just cancelled our Hampton reservation (17:05) if somebody needs one, jump on it.

We've been watching them practice today, can hear and see them from 52F. Went over to TMS for awhile to watch, will be exciting to see from inside the stadium. Takes about 56 seconds to make a two lap race. If you plan on watching from outside the stadium be ready to get shooed away. The security is keeping the cars moving .

We're Ready

It's official. We're ready...

I'll be a no-show. The other airplane in our flight of two started running badly over Mississippi. Spent all day working an intermittent problem, got tired and went home.

DanH said:

I'll be a no-show. The other airplane in our flight of two started running badly over Mississippi. Spent all day working an intermittent problem, got tired and went home.

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Bummer. Sorry to hear that.
Apparently the cookies came out of the oven when I wasn't looking. Luckily someone set aside three for me. I see Dave's!

Red Bull: PIREP

* I read some schedule online that said the races started at 9:45, but it was a typo on their website. We got there at 9:00 but no real flying occurred until 12:15 or so. Wasn't much to do for the three + hour wait. A few booths outside the speedway, but only a few vendors were aircraft related. Getting there early got us a really close parking spot, but the wait until the races started was a little long.
* The hangar passes get you to a fenced off area, about 30-40 yards from the 12-temporary hangars set up in the infield. You can't get anywhere real close to the planes.
* The reserved seats I bought were in the direct sun, so we did what it appeared everyone else did too, and that was go grab some other seats up under the shaded awning. This was a HUGE improvement, temperature-wise! Great view!
* Racing was interesting! It was wild to watch how the direct cross-wind affected the aerial race track. Winds above the track were one speed and direction, but the winds down in the 'bowl' of the track (where the main pylons are located) were different. The pilots looked like they had their hands full.
* Beer was $7 and a hot dog was $9. Still much cheaper than going to a Cowboy game and buying the same items
* Was looking forward to buying some cool t-shirts, but really found nothing other than fairly generic Red Bull shirts. I was thinking it may be like the drag boat races, where all the boat teams sell their individual t-shirts and stuff. No joy.
* There are 12-main planes, and a few guys that are practicing to qualify for upcoming races. We watched all of the teams run their practice runs, from 12:15 until about 3:00. Then we left. The final races of the day weren't supposed to happen until 5:15 or so. On the way home we hit some torrential rainfall, with lightning, around downtown Fort Worth. I am wondering if they even held the 5:15 final races? Radar kind of showed the storms moving toward the Speedway!?
* The online schedule for Sunday shows racing from 12:00 to 2:30. However, if they had to call off this afternoons races, I wonder if they'll run them earlier in the morning?
* For those of you that stayed: did they cancel the afternoon flights due to WX? If so, did they say anything about an altered schedule for Sunday?

Thanks!

Parking?

I was late getting there today and saw on the website that parking was free.....until I tried to park. Then was told it was $10! Watched for the access road and will bite the bullet tomorrow I Gus's. Left at 5 as the dark clouds came. Race control is on 120.500 and said there was a 15 minute hold.

Bad weather never reached the track while we were there. We left just before the "aerobatic helicopter" act.

One of the last qualifying racers just needed to finish the course to qualify. No time requirement.
He cut 3 pylons and was disqualified. Bummer.

Pretty much ditto what Gary said. I stewed in my seat until ~12:30pm when then started flying.

For tomorrow:
1220 Top 12
1320 Super 8
1410 Final 4

Master's qualifying did not occur

The 'B-team', otherwise known as the Challengers racers, finished their finals mid afternoon with the last racer cutting down the 3 pylons Mel mentioned. The Masters class was supposed to have their qualifying runs after a short break. They decided on a 15 minute weather delay, guessing that was due to some lightening south of the field. The good pilots we are, we had been watching that storm cell for quite some time. It hadn't moved much at all and had just been building. Our group laughed at the idea it would only be 15 minutes and decided to retreat as we thought it unlikely they would be back in action early enough to finish the qualifying round. We were having happy hour in the RV parking area with a great view of the stadium but never saw another plane fly.

So, 'qualifying' never happened for the masters class. Does not really matter to us, we are having a great time watching those guys work.

From the Red Bull website:
Weather conditions including high winds above 25 knots and thunderstorms in the near vicinity of the Texas Motor Speedway at Fort Worth have forced the Race Committee to cancel the Qualifying round for the Master Class of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship today.

The starting order for Sunday's race will be based on the fastest time of each pilot throughout today's two training sessions. The race will continue as scheduled tomorrow, Sunday 7 September, moving directly into the Finals for the Master Class.

During the actual races, the event has been fun. Not much of anything going on the rest of the time. They need an airshow....

Today's 'real' racing was spectacular! There were three heats that took the final 12 to one. The competition was tight and very fast paced production. Got my blood pumping. Well worth the weekend for us.

And not a single pylon cut. Quite different from yesterday!

Beginning to think that some of Saturday's pylon cutting was to impress the crowd.

Very impressive racing today.

Mel said:

And not a single pylon cut. Quite different from yesterday!

Beginning to think that some of Saturday's pylon cutting was to impress the crowd.

Very impressive racing today.

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True indeed, but even though it is all about the production, I would hesitate to compare to something like WWF (of which I know nothing and am not a fan). All of these pilots do have superior skills and equipment than anything in my sights.
Yesterday, the winds were moving around quite a bit with pylons dancing. So much so that they often simply got blown down. It was not a point and shoot day... It seems like those "air gates" only have wingspan + (wingspan * .4) clearance. The tops of those gates were moving around often within half of the tolerance. I'm just glad that they have improved the gates such that we didn't have to wait for 20min for them to resolve each. Now it takes just a couple of minutes to reset the gates! Also fun to watch.

Today, the winds were calm and clearly the airplane went wherever they pointed it. We all know how much easier that is.

Stoked with this event, simply for the quality racing today. Yes, we too squatted in seats in the shade both days. There were plenty of seats, and no way would I have lasted two hours sitting out there in the baking sun, much less, all weekend.

From the last race to back home in Austin was about 1+50 for us. Thanks Jay!!! Shower, beer, sleep.

scard said:

Yesterday, the winds were moving around quite a bit with pylons dancing. So much so that they often simply got blown down. ...I'm just glad that they have improved the gates such that we didn't have to wait for 20min for them to resolve each. Now it takes just a couple of minutes to reset the gates! Also fun to watch.

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Some pictures of the moving pylons and repair.

Sorry to miss it...I imagine a lot of fun was had.

Snapshot, how I spent my weekend: Loading at Carthage MS for a night run back to south Alabama:

So.....advice on going? Planning on Las Vegas next month. Do's and don'ts??
Maybe just Sunday is enough?

Agreed - Sunday was a blast. Much better racing/competition - weather probably helped.

I'd use Saturday qualifying day as a loose day/check it out but don't have to see it all - with the finals Sunday as the have-to-see event.

We baked as well, but fun a ton of fun.

Just Sunday would be a pretty short day. Races started about 12:20pm and ended at 2:20.

Although, Saturday was a bit of a long day with flights starting at noon and going into the early evening.

Advice: Shade if it is hot.

Wow, Dan, that looks bad. Quite a rig though.

flyingriki said:

So.....advice on going? Planning on Las Vegas next month. Do's and don'ts??
Maybe just Sunday is enough?

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If it's like this past weekend, don't do just one day. Saturday was as much fun as Sunday.

Hangar Access

So it was a really fun weekend.
Like most say, Saturday was fun and exciting with all the pylons getting knocked down. Wx was badass all through the day.
At 17:00 it was Cabela's time before getting back to the hotel.

Sunday was a different story. Now THAT is some racing skills and airmanship against the clock. Just wish I could ever attend the Reno Pylon Racing school for fun.

It was a long drive back home (close to 12 hours; RV8 yet unfinished).
But I'm pretty happy with it.

This is what I got at the end of the race, during the award ceremony. This guy got lucky and got a picture with me
Jk. He's such a cool, humble, and open guy, and I had a blast!

Saturday was a hoot. I spoke with Kirby Chambliss on Monday and he said the ground crews were worried that they would run out of replacement pylon sections. Apparently Saturday set a record. (The guys at the south gate were exhausted as they got most of the work.)

Watching the Challenger series, with two less pylons to navigate, they were clipping pylons almost as fast as the crews could put them back up. Makes you realize just how good the Masters Class really is.

Sunday, not a single pylon was cut.

Hopefully, we'll see them again next year.

Chris

chrispratt said:

Saturday was a hoot. I spoke with Kirby Chambliss on Monday and he said the ground crews were worried that they would run out of replacement pylon sections. Apparently Saturday set a record. (The guys at the south gate were exhausted as they got most of the work.)

Watching the Challenger series, with two less pylons to navigate, they were clipping pylons almost as fast as the crews could put them back up. Makes you realize just how good the Masters Class really is.

Sunday, not a single pylon was cut.

Hopefully, we'll see them again next year.

Chris

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What a great weekend! We met up with a group of friends from Wisconsin, and hooked up with a few folks from Texas and Iowa.

Saturday was the best day, from my standpoint. Yes, the Masters flying on Sunday was more precise, but it only lasted two hours! We had friends who flew up JUST for Sunday, and they were a bit miffed at the brevity of the races. Heck, their flight to/from Ft. Worth was twice as long as the races themselves.

Saturday, however, was a hoot! The excitement of watching the new kids hitting pylons on virtually every race was terrific! And really, the spread from the fastest rookie on Saturday to the winner on Sunday was only 10 seconds!

And Ft. Worth rocked. We managed to get away from the horrible I-35 corridor long enough to enjoy the Stockyards (fabulous steaks) and Grapevine, an awesome little town of shops, restaurants, and an excursion train. We are already planning our return trip.

Flying up from the coast rocked. 2 hours, on the dot, sure beats driving 8+ hours!

This was our third time seeing the Red Bull Air Races, and the Texas Motor Speedway was by far the best venue to see them in. Everything happened RIGHT in front of you! You guys out in Vegas should have a similar show -- don't miss them!