An RV Racing Class at Reno?!

[MacNab]

Now that I have your attention...wouldn't it be interesting if they established an RV racing class at Reno?

I thought I would throw the topic out for discussion. I think it would be a blast to see eight RV's battling it out on the Biplane/F-1 course.

Hypothetically, how would you establish such a racing class, and what sort of rules or restrictions would you apply to the RV's that were in it?

With so many flying RV's and the number of us who are interested in racing, do you think it would draw a large group of competitors?

What do you think of this, Bob?

I suspect that the concept would make Van a little nervous...

[rv6ejguy]

I think they'd have trouble fitting any more racing into the schedule unless they cut some of the demonstrations down- ok by me as I go to see racing, not the airshow.

An RV class would allow many more pilots to access the sport and eventually move up the ranks. RVs have a strong enough airframe to handle the flight loads and could be fast enough to be interesting although they might be the slowest class initially. The T6s and biplanes are already averaging over 225 mph around the course.

The other problem might be trying to qualify only about 20-30 airplanes out of maybe 100 showing up!

Hard to police the engine mods as always. Not to fair to have a stock 320 running against a modded IO-360/390 unless it is just treated as an exhibition class and anything goes.

[osxuser]

Watchability? I was up at PRS this year, and they used an RV-8 and a Glasair 1 RG to train new F1 pilots on the course (Dual instruction portion). It was cool to see, but almost painfull slow even across the small F1 course.

I don't know about anyone else, but It'd be real hard to get people to watch airplanes that only go around 200mph running around a course. The Biplane and F1 classes are already... shall we say, low fan base classes. It's cool to see the rockets out there in Sport, but we all know they ain't gonna place when people like Jon Sharp are out there.

People come out to see speed, I don't think an RV class has mass appeal enough to get RARA interested. I do think it'd be cool if they had a 4 cylinder (400 CI restricted) sport class. But that would probably be dominated by Lancair 360's....

[John Clark]

Originally Posted by osxuser

Watchability? I was up at PRS this year, and they used an RV-8 and a Glasair 1 RG to train new F1 pilots on the course (Dual instruction portion). It was cool to see, but almost painfull slow even across the small F1 course.

Reno is about getting spectators and having them come back. As much fun as an RV class would be from inside the airplane, it would be like watching paint dry for the spectators. Sorry, but this is about show biz and selling tickets.

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA

[MacNab]

O.K., then lets reduce the course to a one mile oval ala Nascar and start to rub some paint off these babies.

I didn't think souped up RV's would be any slower than the Biplane class, but thinking about it, the constant G loading would probably slow them down considerably.

Seriously, though, if you want to talk about watching paint dry, lets talk about the T-6 class. The planes are old, their large size makes them look much slower than they are, ....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, snort!, ACK!, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

[scsmith]

Because RV's are short, they cover their length quicker, would look faster than the T-6, although not as fast as F-1.

But the best thing is it would stimulate some innovation. A 25' span, tapered wing with laminar flow airfoils on an RV-8, going 240.....hey, no fair peaking in my garage!

[N941WR]

Like all the other classes, Fighting RV's would start out slow but how many years would it take until they are pushing 250 MPH?

The bi-planes used to be dog slow and look at them now. All the speed mods are just outstanding.

What will happen is that some of the RV's will be so modified they are no longer RV's. Would things like putting a "25' span, tapered wing with laminar flow airfoils on an RV-8" bump it out of class or do they have to stay stock RV?

[Christopher Murphy]

It would seem that a highly modified RV like that mentioned above would be more along the lines of the sport class.

I think racing RV's would be great. Who cares about the spectators.( 99%of them just come for the airshow and or to see a crash) It is about competition. ( and comradery ) I would make the rule that the airframe must be factory design ( no major mods ie. clipped wings, low profile canopies etc.) Two classes RV-Blue ( over 320cid ) and RV-Red ( 320cid or less) Engine compression must be stock compression ratios. Aftermarket cowls fairings custom props would be allowed. This would be very interesting and competitive.

You could have a series of races around the country and award points and then invite the xxnumber of point leaders to race at Reno. I'd do it or I'd watch it.

[Tom Martin]

We already have a great grass roots racing league, SARL. I has classes for all rvs and John Huft is currently the fastest RV by a long ways. Here is the link for the league http://sportairrace.org/index.html
I have been in four of the races in the last couple of years and I have been a bit dissapointed in the rv turnout. The races are a lot of fun and you only have to follow what Bob Axom has done with his nose gear rv to see the benefit of racing. Come on out, there are at least two races left this year.

[rv6ejguy]

The racing at Reno is low altitude and with other traffic so it's a whole different ball of wax with spotting pylons and other traffic against the desert and sage not to mention wake and prop wash issues. Racing against others on the course in close proximity is a lot different than racing the clock.

You have to be experienced, trained and tested before they let you out there which is a very good thing.

SARL is a great way to get introduced to racing for sure but nobody gets to watch you.