Six cities spread across the western U.S. have submitted reams of supporting documents in their bids to be the new home of the National Championship Air Races (NCAR), previously known as the Reno Air Races.
The organizers of the races, known as the Reno Air Racing Association (RARA), put out a call for proposals earlier this year when they announced that they would no longer be able to host the event at the Reno-Stead airport (KRTS) in Nevada.
The six cities are:
- Casper, Wyoming
- Buckeye, Arizona
- Pueblo, Colorado
- Roswell, New Mexico
- Thermal, California
- Wendover, Utah
“Seeing the interest to host the National Championship Air Races at each of these unique venues gives me great hope for the future of air racing,” said RARA CEO Fred Telling. “We’re looking for our next home, somewhere we can celebrate many more anniversaries, so we’ve assembled an expert committee that is putting an extreme amount of care and diligence into choosing our next location.”
The Reno Air Races were founded in northern Nevada in 1964 and have attracted over 1 million visitors to the region generating over $750 million (USD) for the economy. RARA’s site selection committee will begin visiting candidate airports later this year.
“We only want to go through this process once and because of that, we’re going to make sure our next location is the best fit for the future of the air races,” selection committee chairman Terry Matter said.