Race Morning - Mon June 16th - Beautiful Weather, Sunshine, and a Launch

On the ramp with "Sylvia 2" - ready for Launch

Sue's toenails painted to match "Sylvia 2"

Well, it was a busy weekend of race briefings mixed with a bit of relaxation. Racer moods turn to the business of the race... focus... high energy... some edginess and tension with the anticipation of 50 planes launching only about 60-90 seconds apart.

Fire crash truck at the ready in the background

Classic 30, a V-tail Bonanza, on the roll leaving CCR

For me, the night before the race just always reminds me of that excitement and anticipation that I had as a kid on Christmas Eve. In Concord, our hotel room overlooked the ramp area with all the planes tied down. We can look out on Sylvia 2 resting at her tie down spot, waiting for her big moment Monday morning. Time to catch some shut eye...

The morning dawns cool, sunny, and blue skies above. Perfect launch weather, which is a welcome contrast to the 2013 Start in Pasco where low clouds blocked our launch. The Concord crowd will get a great launch watching us all lift off to fly north to our first timing line and flyby in Dorris CA (A32) with a fuel stop in Klamath Falls OR.

Sue caught a pedicure to get her toenails painted to match the trim on the SlowDowner. The Sundowner has a pretty blue ribbon painted on her right wing (only) to note the special edition of her plane. Yep, no matching ribbon on the left wing. Hhmmm...doesn't that make the right wing heavier?

Classic 33, just ahead in the taxi line, running up her engine

As Classic 34, we have about 30+ planes to launch ahead of  us. We start our engines in groups of 5-7 planes with each group taxiing down and running up their engines on the final check. We can see Classic 30 taxi out to the runway and zoom off. Classic 33 just in front of us runs up and launches. Finally, it's our turn and we're off on our 2014 Air Race Classic adventure.

We're OFF!!! Climbing and turning out from Concord CA...

And oh what an adventure this one proves to be...