The Fastest Side of General Aviation

There are very few places where you can stand next to an airplane in the pits, watch its crew make last-minute adjustments, and then see that same machine tearing around a course at hundreds of miles per hour a short time later. 

That’s air racing.

This week, some of the fastest airplanes and pilots in the country are gathering in Roswell, New Mexico, for the 2026 National Championship Air Races (NCAR).

For decades, September air racing was synonymous with Reno, Nevada. When the final race took place there in 2023, it felt like the end of an era. Thankfully, it wasn’t the end of air racing.

It was just the beginning of its next chapter. 

The NCAR found a new home in Roswell, and from Wednesday through Sunday, racers will once again take to the course in everything from tiny Formula One airplanes to warbirds, jets, experimental Sport Class machines, and the fire-breathing Unlimiteds. 

Air racing represents one of the most interesting corners of general aviation because it asks a question pilots and aircraft builders have been asking almost since airplanes were invented: How can we make this thing better?

Go faster. Reduce drag. Improve cooling. Find another horsepower. Fly a cleaner line.

Then go try it. 

That experimental spirit is deeply intertwined with GA.

Walk through the pits at an air race and you’re seeing decades of aviation knowledge being put to work in real time. Pilots, mechanics, engineers, builders, and volunteers obsess over details  most of us would never notice from the grandstands.

In an aviation world increasingly dominated by screens, automation, and technology, air racing remains incredibly physical. It’s pilot, airplane, engine, course, and a relentless pursuit of speed.

This week also represents something important for those of us who grew up associating September with airplanes circling pylons in the Nevada desert. 

Air racing survived.

The location changed. The backdrop changed. Now a new generation of fans will associate the sport with New Mexico instead of Nevada.

But the reason people keep showing up hasn’t changed. 

We still want to see what airplanes—and the pilots flying them—are capable of when someone decides that fast simply isn’t fast enough.

I’m glad there’s still a place where we get to find out.