The last two months have been both disappointing and exciting for us in the USRA, and here’s what’s going on.
First off, we are all very disappointed that the event in Texas had to be canceled. Both Fred French and Rick Grim worked very hard to put on a great race, but the low number of participants that were planning on attending left them no choice but to cancel the event. Most of us do not realize the amount of money that it takes to put on an event, and often our promoters do well just to break even. Our Texas promoters were looking at a large chunk of red ink, and after taking a pretty good hit last year they felt that it would be wise to pull the plug on this year’s race. I know that some of you were looking forward to this race, and were planning on attending. The race promoters and I both feel bad that they couldn’t pull it off, but we are at the stage where our races need to be financially viable for our promoters, and I don’t want anyone to lose their shirt. I know this negatively impacted some of our members, but I’m asking that we all keep our chins up on this and move on.
And speaking of moving on….The Kansas
event is up next, and our promoter Loren Tregalles has quite an event planned for us. I know everyone who was going to go to Texas is
really itching to go racing, and those of us who couldn’t make it to
Texas will surely have enough time to get things ready for Kansas. Loren had great support from the community at his
race last year, and now it is our turn to give him our support. If you can make it to the race in any way shape or
form, I highly encourage you to do so. Everyone
who went last year had a great time despite the low attendance. This year’s turnout is looking to be much
better, so I would imagine everyone will be in great spirits and having a blast. I plan on going to the race, and I hope to see you
there.
With
the cancellation of Texas, and to give everyone a little more incentive to come out to
Kansas, the Board has decided that ALL of the remaining three races will count towards the
Championship. When we decided on a best
three-out-of-four format earlier in the year, it was because we felt that three races were
the most that an average member could attend. Now
that we are down to three, there’s no reason not to count them all! Review the points system, and don’t forget
that we are handing out points even when there are as few as three planes entered in a
class….So don’t miss out on the opportunity to add up some points for the
Championship!
I
had the chance to drive up to Reedley for one day of their event, and got a chance to see
quite a few USRA members. It was great to see
everyone having a good time at this very nicely attended race. The promoters Leslie and Dave were very
busy, so I didn’t have a chance to talk with them much, but the event went very well. I heard lots of nice compliments from our members
about the way that they were treated, and the race ran smoothly the entire day that I was
there. The airport was in a nice area and
close to town. The runway was about the same
as Eagle field in size, and the runway lights did catch a few airplanes. There were a few new racers out there, and some
returning veterans too. Keep your eyes open
for these guys at our events ‘cause they all looked very fast. I did have a chance to talk briefly with Jack
Thomas, and he plans on coming to some of our events this year, and I’m really
looking forward to having him come circle the sticks with us.
Ken