"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:ndI4d.245778$Fg5.212469@attbi_s53...

I'm kind of confused by the Reno Air Races, to be honest.

Here they are, the fastest, most exciting motor sport in the world -- and
almost no one outside of the aviation community knows about them. Even
in
Reno, which did have a fair amount of local media coverage, there were no
meaningful race results published daily. It was mostly "fluff" pieces in
the local paper, and on the evening news.

The focus is on the Unlimited class, but I do recall reading in the Reno
Gazette Journal about how the biplanes snuck up in the speed ranks.

Strangely, there wasn't even any venue to bet on the results, which
(although I don't like to gamble) seemed odd in a city where gambling on
ANYTHING is encouraged. Wouldn't you think they would have had some sort
of method for betting on the races?

Ladbrokes (sp?) in England will take bets on almost anything. In Nevada,
with boxing being the glaring exception, if a single person could throw the
event, they tend to not take any action on the event. Many years ago, when
Oral Roberts said he'd stay in his tower unless God sent him X million
dollars, you could bet on it in England but not in Nevada.

There used to be a club by the train tracks (across from the Silver Legacy)
called the "Turf Club". It was the only place where I ever saw bets on a
tennis tournament months before the event. They probably had Air Race
betting.

And here's the final mystery: They have no television contract. Why
hasn't
ESPN jumped all over this venue? It's incredibly dangerous, exciting,
fast, and macho -- all the things NASCAR has, times three.

I remember watching ABC's "Wide World of Sports", back in the day when they
had Acapulco cliff diving and such. They showed a crash at Reno where the
pilot's shoes were on the ground but the pilot survived. I wish I could
honor the pilot by remembering his name.

I suspect the lack of a series keeps the networks away. Before WW-II, there
were a number of air races and speed competitions. Now, there is one (the
"races" to fly-ins don't really count for TV). Wide World of Sports
devolved into gymnastics and figure skating, and the opportunity to see
unusual sports has evolved into the "Xtreme" crap. I have a friend who
races Skier-cross in the winter "X" games. It is a made for TV spectacle -
however, it is built around well marketted series of preliminary events.

The race organizers had a big setback in September, 2001. Hopefully, they
can find a way to get on the "Xtreme" bandwagon without alientating those of
us who keep the bill of our hat facing forward and don't use "Dude" as a
comma.

-cj