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If they can do it with less than 1000 cu. in, we might have to let them in
I think the liability of full-bore racing due to a possible crash is too high for that to be a reality. You need a place where the racers can run without causing a lot of casualties if somebody puts it in the dirt. Reno has had several close calls and one really bad accident - Galloping Ghost was a wake-up call and in hindsight was really the beginning of the end.
One Navajo fry bread is enough to last a lifetime.
Love that stuff.....
We might understand the issues more than you think. Issue 1: The proposed course at Roswell has no airport under the race course! RARA expressed the idea that the flat terrain means that an off-airport landing is "survivable". But look, it basically means that for many aircraft (including RVs) Any and every mayday means a destroyed aircraft. Sure, I can probably survive a 'landing' in the open desert in my RV-8. The chances of ending up upside down are pretty good. How about in a Lancair or Glasair, where the approach speeds are about 100 kts, on short, stiff, fragile retractable gear. Survivable? Maybe. That also raises the question of post-landing survival. Now you are out in the middle of the desert, with challenging access if any for first responders. In contrast, the proposed course at Pueblo has 3 big long runways under the race course, and to the east, lots of open ground where the railroad test facility is. Civilization is not at all close except on the west side, kind of similar to the way Stead had housing and infrastructure all on one side. And - think about it - civilization is a necessary component of air racing. You need an audience to pay entry tickets or you don't have a race.
This year the Sport Class will be running races in conjunction with two airshows, both at Madras, OR and at Las Cruces, NM. The Madras race will really feature RVs very strongly.
there have also been hundreds of maydays that ended safely with little or no damage to the airplane, and all souls safe.
having been involved with reno for over 30 years, both as a crew member, and as with RARA, i have to disagree. the beginning of the end started well before the events of 2011. the decline started in the late 1980's. encroachment did play a part, but that was mostly a good story to blame it on. the financials of RARA were in shambles since the 1980's and getting worse. mismanagment and declining crowdes year after year made it worse.
A big factor you didn't mention has been a refusal to do any meaningful marketing. It is amazing how often I mention the Reno races and other pilots say, "Oh, they still do that?". Many of us have bugged Fred and others to at least run a full-page color ad in Flying, AOPA Pilot, Sport Aviation, maybe even Aviation Week. Fred's push back was that the EAA crowd isn't interested and he can tell by how few EAA Discount tickets are sold. I laughed and cried at the same time. I've been involved in both for years and I had no idea there was an EAA discount! I've never known anyone that was aware of such a discount. So Fred drew completely the wrong conclusion from his metric. Which, again, amplifies my point of how poor the marketing has been.
