Reno Air Races - Live Streaming Coverage

Since 1964 the Reno Air Races have been the world's fastest motorsport.
This year's meet is shaping up to be one of the best ever. Listen in!

Today's Unlimited Gold race will feature speeds approaching 500mph only fifty feet above the Nevada desert. The top four aircraft are all capable of exceeding the magic 500 number, and as of late last night, all are reported healthy. This week's series of qualifying and heat races has already brought some of the best wing-to-wing action (and drama) we've seen in a decade. The weather has been nearly perfect.

Besides Unlimited, racing classes include Biplane, T-6, Jet Class, Sport and SuperSport, and "Formula One" (no, not THAT F1 but rather one tightly restricted to 100bhp).

This year, the sanctioning body (Reno Air Race Assn) has made available a worldwide stream from the narrator's booth on the airfield. You'll need Windows Media Player to listen, and the link is here. Or, if you have a Mac, try this one.

All things horsepower...

..in the end that's what we love, that's why we can rationalize watching the odd tractor pull or maybe even stoop to watching Pinks out of sheer desperation for a mechanical fix.

We covered Unlimited air racing before. BadbadM, a licensed pilot and self described aero-nut, lives for that trip to Reno every year so this is for him.

YouTube mining* yields this nugget from the 90's: Jeremy Clarkson's Extreme Machines.

"Big boy's toys" he starts off " to get involved you really need three things: money, balls and space to play" and with that Clarkson is off to sample a P51 Mustang, an unlimited hydroplane and a 747! Nice.


* thanks to Jalopnik for pointing the way to the nuggets!

The Fastest Piston-Engine Things in the World

OK, take everything you've learned about auto racing and throw it out the window (except for that universal rule stating "more money buys more speed")... this is very different, but will stir your soul in much the same way.




There's nothing like watching a small group of America's most talented, financially-secure adrenaline junkies compete for glory at the Reno National Championship Air Races each September. This relatively unknown sporting event draws about a quarter-million insane fans from around the world, and the event lasts one week. Circuit speeds of up to 507mph per lap have been timed, as several modified warbirds push (and often breach) the limits of hotrodding technology to traverse the 9-mile oval course as quickly as they can. Who are these people? Quite simply- I think the pilots and owners are the guys and gals (and former astronauts) who are simply bored to death by silly horse racing.


But 4500 horses produced by 18 nitrous-breathing cylinders, pulling a lone man? Yeah, that seems to do it for them. And that's also what it takes to hold the 3-kilometer world speed record (for propellers) at 528.329mph. Meet Lyle Shelton's Rare Bear, a highly-modified Grumman F8F Bearcat (the WWII-era spiritual father to the F-14, if you will) that has been setting speed and altitude records (and winning Reno) since the 1960s.

During the course of the off-season (which pretty much encompasses 50 weeks of the year), the Bear was sold to a new owner and is having a ground-up rebuild (not her first, mind you), which includes a fresh racing engine. The work should be done in time for Reno, which is the only thing that matters in the minds of Rare Bear fans around the world.

True air racing (not that Red Bull junk) has no dollars generated by mega-sponsors or TV rights. It is self-propelled by the participants and the frightfully loyal (albeit small) fanbase. There is no other motorsport quite like this. Some of the races have well-sorted finishes, while others are so close you can't breathe until it's over. The view from the grandstand is unbelievable, though it helps to have a pair of binoculars. People come from all over the world to see it just once. You should, too.




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