The National Championship Air Races land at Roswell and the desert town betting it can be the new home of pylon racing

The National Championship Air Races — the fastest motorsport on the planet — have a new home at Roswell Air Center in Roswell, New Mexico, following the end of racing at Reno, Nevada in 2023. After a nationwide search by the Reno Air Racing Association, Roswell beat out competing cities to host unlimited pylon racing, where modified WWII warbirds like P-51 Mustangs and Hawker Sea Furies fly wingtip-to-wingtip around an oval course at speeds approaching 500 mph. For pilots, it means a beloved aviation institution survives — and a new cross-country destination is on the map.

Why Reno Air Racing Ended After 60 Years

For six decades, unlimited air racing meant Reno, Nevada. Every September, the world’s best pilots brought the fastest piston airplanes ever built to Stead Field north of town and flew them low, fast, and side by side around a course marked by oil drums mounted on telephone poles.

The aircraft were legends: P-51 Mustangs, Hawker Sea Furies, and Grumman Bearcats — machines built to win a war and then modified within an inch of their lives to win a trophy.

It ended in 2023. The lease at Stead ran out, and the city of Reno and surrounding county had grown right up to the fence line. After the final pylon race, the entire community wondered whether unlimited air racing was simply gone.

It wasn’t. It moved to Roswell.

Why Roswell Air Center Was Chosen

Roswell Air Center was formerly Walker Air Force Base, a Strategic Air Command base that operated heavy bombers including B-52s. That military pedigree left behind exactly what air racing needs.

The main runway stretches past 13,000 feet, and the ramp is enormous. The surrounding land is flat, open, and empty — with no neighbors crowding the fence line, which is precisely the problem that ultimately ended racing at Reno.

Wide-open space gives organizers room for the course, room for crowds, and the safety buffer the sport requires.

How Roswell’s High Desert Changes the Racing

Roswell sits at roughly 3,600 feet of elevation, and that changes everything for the racers. High field elevation and hot summer afternoons push density altitude up significantly.

That matters because it changes how the big radial engines and the Merlin V-12s make power. Teams that decode the air over Roswell first will have a strategic edge. For a 60-year-old sport, it’s a brand-new puzzle.

What Makes These Race Planes Different

A race-modified Mustang looks nothing like the polished example in a museum. Teams clip the wings, shave the canopy into a tiny bubble, and polish the aluminum until it looks wet. Anything that creates drag gets smoothed, tucked, or removed.

These airplanes are built for a single purpose: to get around the course faster than the airplane beside them. When a Merlin engine lights off and a crew runs it up, you don’t just hear it — you feel it in your chest.

How Air Racing Actually Works

This is not a drag race, and it’s not one airplane against the clock. Multiple aircraft race in the air at the same time around an oval course marked by pylons.

Races begin from a flying start: a pace plane leads the field down, the call comes, and the throttles go forward as the pack dives for the first pylon. Pilots fly low enough that you look at them rather than up at them, banking so hard around the pylons that a wingtip points at the desert floor — all while pulling Gs, managing an overstressed engine, and tracking the airplanes around them. It is true three-dimensional, wheel-to-wheel racing.

What Racing Classes Compete

The unlimited warbirds get the headlines, but several classes fill out a race weekend:

Sport class — sleek kit-built airplanes like Lancairs and Glasairs, going shockingly fast
Jet class — pure-jet competition
T-6 class — every pilot flies the same trainer, so it comes down to skill alone
Formula One and Biplane classes — tiny airplanes with tiny engines on a smaller course, producing some of the tightest racing of all

The result is that there is almost always something in the air.

What a Race Weekend Will Feel Like

Organizers want Roswell to be more than a race — they’re building a festival. Expect food vendors, New Mexico green chile on everything, and open ramp access where you can walk right up to the teams, who love to talk shop.

Between heat races, Roswell is folding in a full airshow: aerobatic acts and warbird flybys, the kind of moment where a P-38 Lightning makes a low pass and the announcer goes quiet to let the engines do the talking.

The Honest Picture: A First Year Is a First Year

Reno had 60 years to perfect its choreography. Roswell is building from the ground up. The course must be surveyed and certified, the safety plan rebuilt for a new field, and teams have to learn a new airport, new air, and new sight lines around new pylons. There will be a learning curve.

What gives the move its best odds is community buy-in. From the FBO to the diner to the hotel front desk, locals light up about the races — the same sense of civic ownership that was Reno’s secret ingredient for six decades.

Why This Matters for Pilots

If you fly, Roswell Air Center has the runway and ramp capacity to handle visiting traffic, making this an ideal cross-country destination — and there’s no better way to arrive at an air race than under your own power. If you don’t fly yourself, the airlines serve Roswell, and the drive across the high desert is half the experience.

Beyond the spectacle, the move preserves a living piece of aviation culture. Race teams are families — crew chiefs, pilots, and volunteers who spent decades keeping these warbirds airworthy. When Reno closed, many thought their flying days were over. Roswell gave them a runway and a reason to roll the airplanes back out of the hangar.

Key Takeaways

The National Championship Air Races are relocating to Roswell Air Center, New Mexico after the Reno races ended in 2023.
Roswell, a former B-52 Strategic Air Command base, offers a runway over 13,000 feet and wide-open space with no neighbors at the fence line.
The field’s 3,600-foot elevation and high density altitude create new strategic challenges for engine performance.
Racing features multiple aircraft flying wingtip-to-wingtip around pylons at up to 500 mph, across classes from Unlimited warbirds to Formula One and Biplane.
The first year will involve a learning curve, but strong community support gives the new venue a solid foundation.