The Reno Air Racing Association (RARA) announced Friday that the Unlimited Class will not participate in the 2025 National Championship Air Races, scheduled for Sept. 10–14 in Roswell, New Mexico, according to KOLO ABC 8.
“The Unlimited Class is one of our most iconic, so we are obviously disappointed,” said Fred Telling, chairman and CEO of RARA, in a statement reported by KOLO. “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.”
Telling noted the decision carries added weight, given the Unlimited Class’s role in reviving the races in 1964, an effort that set the foundation for nearly six decades of competition.
Unlimited Class spokesperson Steven Hinton said the decision was not made lightly.
“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,” Hinton told KOLO.
While the class will forgo this year’s debut in Roswell, discussions are underway to support its return at next year’s event. Fans attending the 2025 races can expect the remaining six classes of competition, along with military and civilian airshow performances, a vendor and exhibitor midway, and static displays of historic aircraft.
The obvious question unanswered in the article… WHY?
In what has tragically become the norm at Av Web there was NO aviation journalism as such, but just reposting a sanitized organizer’s PR blurb..
Aero News Network did more of the same investigative journalism that got its founder banned from Sun N Fun years ago and reported that the same participant safety, operations, and “$u$tainability” concerns that caused Sport Class to bail out in July finally vexed the Unlimited owners and pilots enough to skip it. Looks like it will become just an airshow this year with only the biplanes racing.
Is there any alternative newsletter you know of? AVWEB used to be so good in the days of Paul Bertorelli. Too bad…
Paul Bertorelli is the best Italian-American thing since somebody put pulled pork on spaghetti. He brought a lot of value to Avweb. There is some pretty good reporting, however, say with the head of the FAA lying about his pilot certificates, etc.
I’m guessing it’s a power play rooted in ego politics.
Reading between the lines on another article, it sounds like safety concerns among other things. From Aero-News Network, “The class itself cited safety, operations, and sustainability as key reasons for sitting out the Roswell event.” Sport Class also decided to opt out for “some logistical and operational concerns that arose for the Class during this year’s practice and evaluation sessions at the Pylon Racing Seminar.”
I wonder if the course design and location has anything to do with this. Reno had the advantage of two runways nearly under the course. Roswell has one runway close to the start/finish line, but nothing on the back stretches. The straight-line distance is 3 NM and 1.5 NM from the back stretch to the nearest runway for the respective classes. Reno’s runway 14 was about 1.7 NM from the further point on the course. Racers I know have said that it was possible to reach a runway at any point on the course at Reno. I have my doubts about that on the north and west sides of the course at Roswell unless crossing directly over or opposite the racing line.
Russ’s new venture: