Unlimited Class race planes will not take part in the first National Championship Air Races event to be held in Roswell, New Mexico, Sept. 10-14, but plans are already being made to host the marquee event at the 2026 races. No reason was given for the withdrawal of the highly modified aircraft that reach speeds approaching 500 mph in a joint statement by the Reno Air Racing Association and the Unlimiteds. “The decision not to participate in the 2025 National Championship Air Races was not made lightly,” said Unlimited Class spokesman Steve Hinton. “The Unlimiteds are deeply woven into the fabric of air racing, and though we’re unable to participate this year, we look forward to working with RARA toward our return to the races in 2026.”
The announcement comes two weeks after Sport Class racers announced they would not be competing due to unspecified issues with the new setup in Roswell. Although those two classes won’t be in Roswell, there will be five classes of racers, a major airshow, static displays, food vendors and exhibitors along with a STEM Discovery Zone with plenty of hands-on science and technology exhibits and displays. “The Unlimited Class is one of our most iconic, so we are obviously disappointed,” said RARA Chair Fred Telling. “While they won’t be able to join us for our inaugural year in Roswell, we look forward to working closely with the class after this event to ensure their accreditation and return at NCAR 2026.”
I heard a rumor that the Sport Class had dropped out also? Perhaps due to emergency landing options (or lack of)?
The sport class bailed out a couple weeks ago, for what sound like safety and financial issues.
The statement about the unlimiteds didn’t specifically cite safety, so my guess is that the problems are financial and logistical, since the event doesn’t have a title sponsor, the unlimited class had been slowly dying off for several years, and flying those airplanes another 1200 miles to Roswell (a significant number of them are based in CA) likely made zero financial sense.
It’s possible 2026 will be a turnaround, but given that 2025 is already a mess (two classes dropped out, the grandstands aren’t finished, and lodging is stupidly expensive if it’s available at all, on top of Roswell not being super accessible anyway), I don’t see how it generates the ticket sales and (more importantly) sponsor interest and funding the event needs to survive.
You can stay in Hobbs for $127 a night.
Time to build a huge RV park with rentable Class A motor homes for 2026?
I know Roswell has made a big effort to make this a success, but I have to wonder if one of the other venues would have been in the same position at this point? Is this a location issue, or something else? Would these issues have been present at Buckeye? (Certainly accessibility and accommodation would have been better).
I love the races, but can’t see going to Roswell any time soon.
Growing pains, not collapse, the program is down by approx 30% this first year, but the core’s solid. Still a bit disappointed. C’est la vie.
Word has been out since OSH that Sport Class was out. Buckeye is a completely unacceptable location for a variety of reasons, the most important being no secondary paved runway. Buckeye should never have been on the original list.
Always thought Wendover, NV would be a better choice with the existing lodging, food, gaming infrastructure. Large multi runway airport, proximity to SLC, UT, consistent weather, aviation museum at the airport including the Enola Gay hangar….what’s not to like?
Jimmy Leeward’s accident dealt the fatal blow; it just took time for the sport to realize it.
If you want the Unlimited class to show, offer at least $1M first place prize.
Also $100k for the fastest lap of the season which also occurred during a race heat.
And perhaps $500k to the fastest lap if it also clocked over 500mph, and occurs during a race heat on either Saturday or Sunday. RARA could probably purchase a form of “insurance” for those prizes not paid out every year; such as fastest lap over 500mph, which will be more affordable than actually offering the cash prize outright. Because there is a statistical improbability of this happening in any given year.
It costs BIG money to operate these airplanes. RARA essentially operates as a charity case. They sell millions of dollars worth of tickets, yet their entire event cannot function without something like 300+ volunteers who work entire weeks for nothing. And all this for spectators to witness a couple of excellent pilots fly some wealthy collectors machines, at somewhat reduced speeds, due to their toys burning giant holes in their pockets, exposing them to risk of enormous losses, with no hope of compensation.
The 2025 Daytona 500 purse was $30,331,250