The headline for this article very well sums up the crowd reaction to Air Racing at Oshkosh.

The average visitor to the spectacle of the EAA's AirVenture could easily be classified as "air show savvy," and many of the people in attendance have been there many times and have seen it all before. To "WOW" this audience takes something special and the performers listed on the show roster are an indication of this fact.

Names like Delmar Benjamin, Gene Soucey, Patty Wagstaff and many others appearing daily certainly make the list as special air show performers.

Add to this a nearly constant stream of military demonstrations, one-of-a-kind classics, huge formations of rare warbirds and just about anything else you can imagine that might fly by, either in formation or solo, and you have the makings of one hell of an exciting airshow!

So how do you impress this group of aviation fans and get their undivided attention? This is a crowd used to seeing the very best in aviation performances, a crowd used to seeing the most exotic and unusual airplanes on an annual basis.

How do you take this group, or any other air show crowd for that matter, beyond "WOW"

If the reaction we observed to the daily dose of air racing by the team assembled at Oshkosh AirVenture 2001is any indication, then Air Racing at Air Shows is the answer.

Join us as we take you on a visit to Air Racing at Oshkosh 2001. In this first of a five part series, we go along for an up-close look at the start of Saturday's Demonstration Race.