Speed kills at air races
RENO -- It's billed as "the world's fastest motor sport."
Critics have another label, calling the Reno National Championship Air Races "the world's most dangerous motor sport" after three pilots were killed during competition last year and a racer was killed during a practice flight Saturday.
The crashes have prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to place greater scrutiny on the races.
Mike Houghton, president of the races, insists that organizers go out of their way to make the event as safe as possible in an inherently dangerous sport.
"Safety, safety, safety is the one thing people get tired of hearing me talk about," Houghton said. "But in every competition there is risk, and ours is the same. If you did away with the risk, you'd have checkers and pingpong."
About 150 of the nation's top racing pilots will compete Wednesday through Sunday for $1 million in prize money at Reno-Stead Airport just north of Reno.
Mark Daniels, a former Army helicopter mechanic and air traffic controller from Dyer, contends organizers have made the races more dangerous than any other motor sport.
"Absolutely, the event's future is threatened by the safety issue. People don't want to come out and see other people die," Daniels said.
The competition is like a car race in the sky, with planes flying wingtip-to-wingtip as low as 50 feet off the sagebrush at speeds sometimes surpassing 500 mph. Pilots follow an oval path around pylons.
Reno has the world's only multiclass air races, with six classes of aircraft competing, said Don Berliner of Alexandria, Va., president of the Society of Air Racing Historians. At one time, air races were staged all over the nation, but only the Reno event remains, Berliner said.
There have been 19 fatalities since the Reno event began in 1964, including the three last year in the deadliest single week.
On the ground, Daytona International Speedway has had 27 race-related deaths since it opened in 1959, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has had 67 deaths, dating to the pre-500 races of 1909-10.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said his agency is stepping up its presence at Reno in an effort to promote safety, including a school for race rookies, safety briefings at the beginning of the races and increased attention given to pilots' records and aircraft modifications.
