Roswell Rewind: There’s a Racing Future There

If anyone ever questioned just how large and complex the National Championship Air Races at Reno, Nevada, had become, all they need do was try moving them to another location. 

But that’s just what the Reno Air Racing Association was up against when, after 59 years, Reno-Stead airport went away and Roswell, New Mexico, was chosen as the new home pylon.

Now the first NCAR championships have been run at Roswell for the first time. In many respects it was a successful weekend, especially Sunday, which delivered clear skies and freshly scrubbed air after Saturday’s downpour. Of course, that it happened at all is a win as a major air race is no trifling matter with a long, unique and difficult requirement list.

Furthermore, the potential at Roswell is huge. It will take time and creative thinking but there is room to grow here. 

There’s also absolutely no question the town of Roswell is for the event. We spoke to as many attendees as we could and most were from Roswell and beyond happy, dare we say grateful, the NCAR had come to town. Likewise, the racers are essentially unanimous in appreciating a locale that actually wanted them there, a sentiment gone missing at Reno recently. 

Also without question the racers—at least the ones who were there—are happy with Roswell. They like the flatter course layout (even the inner 5 km course at Reno ran somewhat up and down hill) and obviously weren’t squeezed for operational space and found the organization good. There are still power poles to remove and hopefully emergency contingencies to come on the longer courses, but that can be done. 

Governmental backing at Roswell is also unprecedented. The local news reported a staggering $28 million dollars has been allocated to RARA by the state of New Mexico. Not all that has been spent, but a majority has gone into site preparation of this first event. That sort of backing definitely got engines running at Roswell. 

On the other hand the first NCAR at Roswell leaves many unanswered questions. Most fundamentally is how patient will public support be waiting for RARA to deliver on its economic promise? Our peek behind the curtain says the political climate is understanding big things don’t happen overnight—they might take two—so if you’re wondering if the NCAR will run in Roswell in 2026 we’ve already booked our motel room. That and RARA has a three-year contract to run here. 

Getting down to the details, the Roswell airport is immense, but only part of it can be used for racing as the second large runway at Roswell remains open during the races for the one scheduled airline flight per day. That means just one runway—albeit a very large and long runway—is available for racing. This lack of emergency runways is disqualifying for the faster, more competitive classes where engine failures are de rigueur. At Roswell this meant the headlining Sport Class was a no-show this year and while efforts are in play to accommodate Sport how they’ll succeed is an open question. 

As for the Unlimiteds we buttonholed Dennis Sanders when he passed through the pits and his take is the big iron will show, but this first year everyone was too tired and busy to make the trip to the new venue. He reports working on Dreadnought’s engine with radial specialist  Anderson, but the hulking R-4360 isn’t repaired yet from its 2023 injuries sustained at Reno.

Then there is the much ballyhooed talk about not enough hotel rooms in Roswell. Yes, it’s a factor but for this first event not a large one. The many volunteers and racers mainly took advantage of recreational vehicle camping and the grandstand crowd was overwhelmingly local. But if the NCAR is to become a destination event for legions of fans from across the country then the throttling of how to get there and where to stay remains.

Getting there remains an agenda item. It’s either a long drive or an airline flight then a three-hour rental car jaunt from Albuquerque, El Paso or Lubbock, and the small plane racers that showed this year mainly disassembled and towed their craft to Roswell. This is normal in Formula 1 but heretofore not so in Biplane. Of course the larger iron such as T-6 and Jet simply buy more gas to get to the Roswell, assuming they are West Coast based. The advantage is Roswell is more or less central to the U.S., and the hope is new racers from the Midwest and East can make the show. 

But for this first year simply the change in venue and distances involved played a part in the low racer turnout. Exact counts varied by class, but a five-plane Gold heat and a four-plane Silver heat was typical. Getting more racers on site is clearly on RARA’s to do list.

First-year glitches were numerous. Some grumbled but these are to be expected and will get ironed out. Not so reassuring was the weather, which the locals rated as surprisingly fickle. Race week started out hot, there’s no other way to describe mid-90 F temperatures under a burning sun. Normal for the locals but for an imported holiday crowd it’s asking too much. We’re all about the “September Family” but early October is more realistic. 

Then there was the rain, which the locals called a fluke. Saturday Noah would have felt at home as frog-strangling thunderstorms deluged in the morning and kept the occasional drizzle handy the rest of the day. Weather-wise races could have been run midday, but flooded communication equipment and impassable mud kept officials from the pylons. Hardening RARA’s essential equipment might help, but see October above. 

Make no mistake, there were things done well. The race courses are in easy, full view of the crowd and we judged the view from the grandstands as good as it can get. We especially enjoyed not having endless fuel trucks, security details, ramp gods and who knows what all driving back and forth between the crowd and the action as they did at Reno. Wi-Fi was strong almost everywhere thanks to repeaters; signage, food concessions, bleachers and so on were appropriate, the welcoming gate sign excellent, the home pylon looked good and shuttles were provided to help with the long walks. Perhaps most importantly, finally there was a good live video feed going out to RARA’s YouTube channel. 

And the racing—oh yeah, the races—were good! The Jets and T-6s made the appropriate noises and paraded in tight formation. The Biplanes and Formula 1s brought their usual close pairings along with the fast-starting vs. ultimately faster top speed matchups. There was one engine failure in F1 when the O-200 in Feisty ventilated its case and another demonstration of the close-knit nature of the class when Eric Dienst lent his spare engine for the Feisty team to pull a near all-nighter changing. As expected the STOL Drags were a crowd pleaser as they run close to the crowd in an easy-to-follow and visually dramatic fashion. 

All told, Roswell is air racing’s new central point. It needs time to mature plus fan and racer support. It will take some new ideas. But for now everyone can be reassured the venue is up and running. Here’s for the next 59 years.