Reno Air Races

Pit pass is a must. Imo it doesn’t matter much where you’re seated to watch the actual racing. Parking kinda stinks, but the Catholic church sells their spots.

 

re seating, ^^^^^, GA seats work as well as any other. You spend half the time walking around so not worth it just to sit closer to 'show center'.
re parking, we drove in one year, every other time we took the shuttle busses from downtown Reno. So much development around the airport now I'm not even sure there is much parking left. Used to be an entire lot full of people camping out for the week(end).
re pit pass, never have done that. Thought about it, but there used to be pretty good static displays and other stuff to pass the time.

 

We just buy a pit pass for the entire race. You can use it to get in the pits and the open seating. If they have the STOL races they are fun to watch. If you like sushi there is a great all you can eat restaurant called Sushimi.
We usually don't get there early enough to watch the Formula one or biplane races. The rest of the races are a little more exciting to watch. Be sure to get a picture in front of the Reno Races sign at the main gate, especially since it is the last race there.
Real bathrooms in the Formula One hangers.
If you have never been up to Lake Tahoe it is definitely worth going up there for a day. Some awesome restaurants in Truckee called the Squeeze Inn for breakfast style food. Italian = Pianettas
General food = Moody's Both on Main Street.

We rent a house in Truckee so we tend to go to those restaurants and stay away from the big city.
Been every year since 1984, sad to see it end.

Hopefully they will find another location soon.

 

Good news!

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Have to learn more about the area, but seems lacking in the total package.

 

Not exactly a destination paradise. To be fair I have only ridden through a time or two. A little surprised it didn't wind up in Arizona. Their version of socially responsible/acceptable seem more flexible. Not to mention a more appealing destination.

 

Don't forget, Reno in 1964 was a very unfinished venue as well. And it's sure better than nothing!

 

But they had casinos and nice restaurants and nice hotels. The mob saw to it.

 

Quite different scenario now. While always trying to attract new fans they need to cater to their existing fan base who have gotten used to

 

I went to NMMI for two years in Roswell. Have fun there. Great Mexican food, but not on a huge scale. The ex-Walker AFB site is huge and the runway is 13,000' x 150', so lots of room. Site is several miles from Roswell itself. There is Indian gambling not too far away in the mountains.

 

I went every year when I lived in Reno from '74 to '81. We would get there very early to both beat the crowds and stake out our seat at the top of the bleachers. Nothing was more exciting than being up there when the unlimited's went off and everybody is on their feet watching!

 

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That is where I learned and solo'd in gliders, Air Sailing at the time.

 

Buckeye, Casper, Pueblo, Roswell, Thermal and Wendover were the six finalists. A repeat of the threat of encroachment was one of the deciding factors. Does anyone here wish they had chosen a different site?

 

Pueblo... Beautiful area

 

yes. Casper or Pueblo would have been better than Roswell. Wendover a big no. No comment on the other two.

 

I have no idea the specific sites available in any of those options. Im sure like anything there were several factors that needed balancing, chief among them local growth or local politics would not push them out in just a few years. I doubt Roswell has grown in 50 years. I also bet the local economy being what it is they'll roll out the red carpet best they can for tourist money. Not a big fan of Roswell but if they welcome the event I am OK with it.

As far as Thermal or Pueblo? Id never consider Colorado or California due to the political instability and daily changing imperatives to expect it to have any future in either. None of them is close enough to a real city to have any after hours attraction.

 

Looking at the cities and their airfields on Google Maps, I'd say that Buckeye and Pueblo would have had encroaching development within a decade or sooner, and perhaps Casper and Thermal would have been the same. Wendover is simply too remote. That leaves only Roswell, which does have a fair number of hotel rooms for its size, perhaps because of UFO tourism! The former air base is plenty big and reasonably remote from downtown.

 

I have spent a lot of time in Wendover because Bonneville Salt Flats is right there. Its not really that remote. Certainly not more so than Casper or maybe Pueblo.
Wendover has a number of large modern hotels and casinos. It about 90 miles from Salt Lake City for air transportation. Its a real tourist area for people from Utah. It actually would have been a good spot. I assume they were going to use the old B29 base thats right on the edge of town. Its the base used for training the atom bomb mission crews. Massive flat spot in the desert with runways.

Wendover has not grown in 50 years. When they filmed The Worlds Fastest Indian which took place in 67 they just filmed it on the east side of town which is in Utah. It hasnt changed in at least that long so it made a perfect movie set. The Nevada side knocks down the old casinos and hotels on a regular basis so its all modern.