The field is set for the 46th Air Race Classic (ARC), the annual all-women cross-country airplane race.
For the 2023 race, 42 teams, consisting of 100 women pilots from across the United States and around the world, will take off at 8 a.m. June 20 from Grand Forks International Airport in North Dakota, for a 2,684-statute mile competition across 12 states that ends June 23 at Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport in Florida.
Intermediate stops are in Mankato, Minnesota, Ottumwa, Iowa, Hastings, Nebraska, Ponca City, Oklahoma, Sulphur Springs, Texas, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Pell City, Alabama, and Cross City, Florida.
The 42 teams of two or three pilots will have four days to complete the course, flying normally aspirated, piston-powered airplanes in visual flight conditions during daylight hours.
At each of the nine intermediate checkpoints, teams will execute high-speed fly-bys over a timing line as they race against the clock. Faster planes may cover the course in only two days; slower teams may not arrive in Homestead, Florida, until moments before the arrival deadline at 5 p.m. on June 23.
Because each plane receives a unique handicap, teams are racing against their own best time, not against one another, race officials said. This creates a level playing field, so slower planes can compete against faster aircraft on an equal basis. Teams strategize to play the elements, holding out for better weather or seeking more favorable winds, to beat their handicap by the greatest margin, officials added.
Official standings aren’t determined until after the last team has crossed the finish line — the last arrival may, in fact, be the winner, officials noted.
The oldest race of its kind in the nation, the Air Race Classic traces its roots to the 1929 Women’s Air Derby, aka the Powder Puff Derby, in which Amelia Earhart and 19 other female pilots raced from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland, Ohio. This year’s ARC celebrates the 94th anniversary of that historic competition, which marked the beginning of women’s air racing in the United States, according to race officials.
For more information: AirRaceClassic.org.
I really like the fact that the tradition is still alive. One of my favorite stories is the one where a woman, can’t remember her name, won a race to the west coast flying a new Staggerwing Beech. She was friends with Walter and Ann Beech. She thought she lost because no other airplanes were around when she did a flyby. Turns out that she was first, and was competing with male pilots also.
Thank you for reminding readers of the original name of the Powder Puff Derby, not derogatory but a piece of Aviation History. Back when we had lady pilots and not women trying to look and act like male pilots. Like the lovely and talented Louise Thaden and Peggy Kirk Bell, the latter who also created the LPGA. We drive often past the two golf courses she built in Southern Pines, not far from her home airfield, Knollwood, aka KSOP, Southern Pines / Moore County, where the original hangar she and her friend Amelia used still stands.