The National Championship Air Races, Roswell's Second Year, and What Sport and Unlimited Bring Back to the Desert Sky

The National Championship Air Races open at Roswell International Air Center this week for their second consecutive year, and the program now includes Sport class and Unlimited class alongside five returning divisions. That brings the total to seven competitive classes - the kind of full schedule that defines a complete race week, not a reduced one.

What Unlimited Class Actually Is

Unlimited is the top of the air racing pyramid, and the class that built the reputation of the event. These are heavily modified World War II-era fighters - Grumman Bearcats, North American P-51 Mustangs, Hawker Sea Furies - that share little with their original airframes beyond basic shape. Engines have been stroked, supercharged, and pushed to outputs their designers never envisioned. Canopies are faired down. Cooling systems rebuilt. Some aircraft run engines originally designed for entirely different applications.

The result is speeds exceeding 500 mph at low level on a closed pylon course, at altitudes measured in tens of feet. That is faster than some jet aircraft, on an oval, in the open desert.

What Sport Class Brings to the Program

Sport class runs smaller aircraft - homebuilts and production designs meeting class specifications, including Van’s RV-series aircraft, Glasair designs, and Lancair variants built specifically to race. It is historically where the next generation of racing develops, and it carries particular resonance with the experimental aviation community. A pilot who spent years building their own aircraft before standing on the start line brings a different dimension to the competition.

The Five Returning Divisions

Five classes were already established in Roswell’s inaugural year and return for year two:

Biplane - fabric-covered aircraft in head-to-head competition
Formula One - tightly restricted engine displacement and airframe dimensions produce extremely close racing
Sport Biplane
AT-6 and SNJ class - radial-engined military trainers producing around 2,000 horsepower, racing in tight formation
Jet class - exactly what it sounds like, and proportionally loud

How the Races Moved From Reno to Roswell

The National Championship Air Races operated at Reno Stead Airport in Nevada for more than fifty years. Reno wasn’t just the venue - for a generation of aviation fans, the two words were effectively the same word. When the event lost that venue, the racing community had a binary choice: let it end or build something new.

They chose to build. Roswell International Air Center, located on the grounds of the former Walker Air Force Base, became the replacement. Long runways, functional airspace, and the room that high desert geography provides made it viable. Year one was a proof of concept - infrastructure stood up, ready classes put into competition, the event demonstrated to be survivable. It worked. But Unlimited and Sport were not fully present in that first year due to logistical and organizational factors, and the gap was visible to anyone who knew the full Reno program. Year two is where the lineup closes.

What Pilots Need to Know Before Flying Into ROW

Roswell International Air Center (ROW) is a public-use airport at 3,671 feet MSL. Runway 17L/35R is 11,600 feet long - former Strategic Air Command infrastructure originally built to handle B-47s. The runway is not the constraint.

Race week operations are. A temporary flight restriction will be in effect in the area, and the race organization publishes specific arrival and departure procedures for transient traffic. Before filing:

Pull current NOTAMs for ROW
Review the race organization’s published fly-in procedures
Plan for a congested frequency environment during race operations - this is not a quiet Tuesday at a quiet airport
Call the FBOs ahead of arrival - they are prepared for the influx, but availability is not guaranteed

Why This Matters Beyond the Race Results

Air racing in America had a genuine near-miss. Institutions built over fifty-plus years carry inertia, and when that inertia stops, restarting it is not a foregone conclusion. The National Championship Air Races are now in their second year at a new venue, with a growing class lineup and Unlimited back on the program. That outcome required deliberate effort from people inside the racing community who decided the event was worth saving and did the work to save it.

For anyone who cares about piston-powered performance aviation, about the lineage connecting modified warbirds to competition, about keeping high-octane racing alive in a world that has largely moved to turbines and glass panels - Roswell this week is where that tradition is being actively maintained.

Racing runs through the weekend. Schedule details and ticketing information are available through AVweb, the source for this report.

Key Takeaways

The National Championship Air Races open Wednesday at Roswell International Air Center (ROW) for year two of the event’s new home
Sport class and Unlimited class join five returning divisions, bringing the program to seven total competitive classes
Unlimited features heavily modified WWII-era fighters capable of exceeding 500 mph on a closed pylon course at extremely low altitude
Pilots flying in must check NOTAMs for ROW, review race-specific arrival procedures, and expect a TFR and busy frequencies during race operations
The event’s continuation is the result of deliberate effort by the racing community - it did not survive automatically, and attendance is part of what sustains it