Prize Money

[John H]

Re: Prize Money

one more time back to the original question

How much did the unlimited gold winner win??

I heard it was about 190, 000. I stand to be corrected. I don't know why all the secrecy, back 20 years ago everybody knew and it was publicised.

[Dave65882]

Re: Prize Money

I think some of RARA's issues are where they try and squeeze another buck out of people. Point in case, I have always bought a season pit pass, but this year I was told the season is Wed. on and I had to buy a different pass for Monday and Tuesday. I take one son with me all week, the other one day and all weekend, oh, and my wife (not to mention buying Wayne beer, thats a steep bill ) drop quite a sum of money each year, and they are going to hit me with 14 dollars more to see the races on a day when only the truely dedicated are out to watch the qualifications. The funny part is, if they just charged me the extra dollars for the "season pass" I would not of complained one bit, but this seemed cheap.

That said, totally agree that they have a lot of items they need to cover. They have kept the races going for longer than i have been alive, gone through all kinds of situations where revenue dropped, and yet still I have my favorite sport each year. (On that note, anyone else wish they did this semi-annual )

Bottom line is I think they need to do a better job at selling themselves, then maybe everyone can see the good things they do for us race fans.

As for the question, sorry, i have no idea but love Wayne's comments, have to bring their own bucket, classic.

[GeeBeeZ1931]

Re: Prize Money

Year after year I've said that you'll get a lot more bees with honey than with vinegar.
If RARA'd stop ripping us off for pop and food that we could easily have for 1/3 to 1/2 the price we'd buy a LOT more of it! At least I would. How about that HUGE barbecue? At the balloon races I got 2 of their dogs at $2 apiece. They were a ridiculous $4 at the Air Races! And I bought zero of them. NO price competition for like food items is allowed! Price fixing indeed!
As it is now I eat breakfast off course and a big dinner in the evening and they don't see any of my money at the course or very little of it. It's a great event but not an excuse to just plain waste money when there's much better deals to be had.

[forbergler]

Re: Prize Money

I agree with both of the last posts. RARA needs to be very careful about pricing, because if they get too greedy it could kill the whole thing. It will just become the Reno Air Show one weekend a year where the ignorant masses(unlike us truly dedicated racing fans) will come out, spend gobs of money, and leave, not giving a rat's ass if it comes back next year.
onto the other part of the discussion; I don't believe anyone racing at Reno expects to get rich from it( a lot already are rich) but I for one would like to see every single team, from the last place formula 1 competitor to the unlimited gold winner, better compensated in order to keep them coming back year after year without going bankrupt. Whatever happened to all the racers of yesteryear? A lot just couldn't afford it anymore, or it became to big of a financial liability if the blew a motor or encountered some other mechanical problem...not to mention current gas prices. If the whole endeavor was a break-even adventure, I think we could see a lot more planes around for a longer period of time. As for RARA, I think better marketing to entice more corporate sponsors to kick more $ into the pot should be a higher priority than milking every last cent out of hard working families for food and drinks that they won't allow us to bring in, forcing us to purchase our most basic needs(food and water) at extremely over-exorbitant prices.
.02

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Prize Money

Bottom line is I think they need to do a better job at selling themselves, then maybe everyone can see the good things they do for us race fans.

As for the question, sorry, i have no idea but love Wayne's comments, have to bring their own bucket, classic.

Dave, you are a classic!! And I do appreciate the corruption that you sent my way... I think, maybe, you have hit the nail on the head here with the "selling themselves" comment.

They (RARA) are, certainly, not the enemy. They make it happen, year after year. Some folks, simply don't understand they "why" behind what they do sometimes.

In the end, I guarantee you, they never do anything to intentionally piss anyone off, they just try to keep it profitable so it can continue. Some of the time, those sorts of decisions manage to ruffle the feathers of the loyal..

Here's to continued air raceing at RENO!!

[Paynts]

Re: Prize Money

Well from a Brit's point of view you guys haven't got much to moan about
try even thinking of holding an event like Reno in Europe - sure we got red bull racing and good air shows but you don't just walk up to a plane and start chatting with a pilot like at Reno - you would never get within 20 metres of a plane!
Second forget fencing off a small airfield and running it like Reno the CAA would soon put a stop to that!
Thirdly as regards Prize money of course the pilots would carry on racing even without prize money
If people like me will travel half way round the globe to watch 3 or 4 10 minute unlimited races imagine what you would do to be a pilot in a fury or strega or a jet If I had the money or even some of the money I'd be doin it at what ever level I could!!!

Its the old adage better to live 1 day as a lion than a life time as a lamb!!!

Seriously guys I don't see much wrong with Reno or RARA I think unlimited will still be howling round reno in another 15 years time
Maybe you should call unlimiteds "classics" and put a design age limit on them -IE "aircraft of a type designed and flown between the years 1935 -1955"

This is what they do for classic car racing in the Uk and boy is there some money thrown at those old cars! I just got back from Goodwood Revival where every car on 1 starting grid was worth over a million dollars!!!!