"GENTLEMEN, YOU HAD A RACE ...The end of the Reno Air Races BY JAN TEGLER ייף

It has been almost 59 years since legendary pilot Bob Hoover first uttered the famous words, “Gentlemen, you have a race!”

- JAN TEGLER

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.