Another
amazing race put on by Air Race 1, this time in Thailand; where sixteen racers
from all over the world met at U-Tapao Naval Air Base to continue the
competition from the Reno Air Races in September for the World Championship.
Jeff
Zaltman has been putting on these races for several years now and believes this
was the largest crowd to watch a Formula 1 Race – ever. Estimates of over
40,000 spectators have been quoted. We certainly don’t get 40,000 spectators for
our early races at Reno!
 |
| Tim Cone Overtakes Phil Goforth for the Lead |
Tim Cone won and is now the Air Race 1 World Cup Champion.
He had some hiccups earlier in the week, but in the Gold Final, he shot passed
the competition. The Gold Podium included Justin Phillipson,” No Strings
Attached” in Third Place and Philip Goforth of Texas in “Knotty Girl” in Second
Place.
Cone’s airplane, a highly modified Cassutt named “What
Airplane, Honey”, was named when his wife only realizing he owned the plane when
she saw him flying it on TV during the NBC Sports airing of the Reno Air Races.
Nice try, Tim!
 |
| Justin Phillipson in No Strings Attached |
Behind the leaders were 2015 Air Race 1 World Cup
winner Thom Richard in “Outrageous” who settled for fourth place and Team Siam
Air Racing “Hysteria” flown by Bangkok-based Frenchman, Lionel Mougel finished
fifth.
Steve Temple in “Quadnickel”, Ryszard Zadow in “Last
Lap Player” and Jerry Marshall rounded out the Gold Final.
 |
| Pilots at the Opening Ceremonies |
Silver
Race
Earlier in the afternoon, Swaid Rahn flying “Heatstroke”
was the winner of the Silver Final, finishing ahead of Chip Maples in “Miss USA”.
Swaid led the entire race from start to finish.
Afterwards he was quoted as saying, “Thailand has been
an awesome experience and we would love to come back.”
Canadian
Scott Holmes finished third in ‘Outlaw’, just ahead of Paul Newman in fourth
and Kent Jackson in fifth. Trevor Jarvis finished sixth and Des Hart from
Scotland, continued his difficult week, with a DNF. Steve Tumlin in his first
Thailand Race received a DNS.
 |
| More close racing action in Thailand |
Other
locations?
Discussion has started to have another Air Race 1 event
in Ely, Nevada. We were lucky enough to stop by their local airport and discuss
how the planning was coming along.
While Ely is far from major cities, they do know how
to put on a World Class event. They host the Silver State Classic and Nevada
Open Road Challenge each year. For this event the entire town comes out to
volunteer or to spectate.
They are blessed with a beautiful airport – with plenty
of flat land for racing and pylons. Multiple runways give pilots lots of
options.
More on the Ely Race as we get closer. But, I believe
2018 will be a great year for Air Racing – across the globe!
Special THANKS to Naomi Dschaak, who was lucky enough
to go to Thailand and was kind enough to let us use her photos for this month’s
column!
