photo by: John English

Lauren Thompson, DeBary, Fla., scrubs on her aircraft on June 22, 2022 at the Lawrence Regional Airport. Thompson was member of one of 42 teams competing in the Air Race Classic, which made a stop in Lawrence.

There are a multitude of reasons that more than 100 women planned to land their aircraft at Lawrence Regional Airport on Wednesday and Thursday.

There is the sightseeing that goes with traveling to a new part of the country. There’s the skill-building that goes with flying an aircraft through the wind and the clouds. There’s the stereotype-busting that goes with pretty much being a female pilot at all times.

But there is one reason that is loved more than the others.

“To go fast,” Clancey Maloney said.

It makes sense. This is a race, after all.

Maloney said she was expecting 42 aircraft to land at the airport in North Lawrence on Wednesday and Thursday — and perhaps into Friday — as part of the 45th Annual Air Race Classic.

If you have ever seen the movie “Cannonball Run,” it is loosely like that, but in the air instead of on America’s highways. And, to its credit, no one like Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise is involved. All 42 teams are piloted and crewed by women, said Maloney, a Lawrence resident and pilot who was leading about 50 race volunteers at the airport on Wednesday.

The race started at 8 a.m. on Tuesday in Lakeland, Florida, and all teams must be finished by 5 p.m. on Friday in Terre Haute, Indiana. Between those two points, there are eight airports scattered throughout the Southeast and Midwest that serve as official race locations.

You can think of Lawrence and the other airports like a pit stop in a race. The aircraft take on fuel, their pilots check the oil and other engine components, and some crews actually shine their planes — rubbing them with cloths and cleaning solutions not only to make them look good but also because every bug splatter creates a little bit of extra drag.

Remember, to go fast is the name of the game, and drag is a real, well, drag when it comes to speed.

But Lawrence is more than just a pit stop on this race. It also is a timing spot. Maloney and her crew of volunteers — several of them also flew in from out of state — often could be found sitting or standing around a pole on the edge of the airport grounds.

photo by: John English

Four spotters with binoculars, plus other volunteers, are positioned near the white timing pole at the Lawrence Regional Airport, which was a timing station as part of the Air Race Classic on June 22, 2022. Spotters from left to right were, Cheri Thompson, David Futrelle, Rhona Cash and Dan Cargile.

That’s the timing pole. An interactive map on a television screen in the airport terminal showed the approximate locations of the aircraft in the race. As they got near Lawrence, volunteers would gather around the pole and wait to receive a radio message from the aircraft once it was 10 miles away from the airport.

Then, the binoculars would come out. Spotters would peer upon the Lawrence horizon, looking squarely at the University of Kansas skyline and sometimes speculating on how much higher than the flags of Fraser Hall the aircraft would be when it approached the airport.

Once the plane was in sight, the official timer would position herself squarely behind the tall, white plastic pole. At this point, the pilot of the aircraft has several requirements she has to meet. She has to bring the plane in within a certain altitude range, she must keep the aircraft in line with the runway below, and she must keep the wings of her airplane level. When the aircraft comes in line with the timing pole, the timekeeper pushes a button on a wireless phone to record the time. At that point, the aircraft continues flying and must make a right turn above the end of the runway in order for the maneuver to be considered official.

Only then can the pilot land her aircraft and stop for a break.

But Lawrence’s importance as a stop is in some ways secondary to its importance as a beginning. A big part of this race isn’t just to crown a winner but also to help elevate women as they seek a career or vocation in aviation.

Many a woman at the airport on Wednesday could quote the statistic that fewer than 10% of all pilots in America are women.

“We hope that changes because women are excellent aviators,” Carol Foy, a pilot and volunteer at the race, said. “We multitask so well.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Navigator Olivia Arnold, Wheatfield, Ind., exits her aircraft on June 22, 2022 at the Lawrence Regional Airport. Arnold was part of the Western Michigan University team competing in the Air Race Classic.

Team 49, which had just crossed the pole and landed, was doing its part to help make the change. It was a three-woman team from Western Michigan University. Two of the three are finishing their degrees in flight science, while the third already has graduated and is a flight instructor.

Oh, and by the way, they also are trying to win a race.

This latest leg from Ada, Oklahoma, to Lawrence — a 262-mile trip — had not been particularly kind to their quest. The trio of aviators had done their planning in an effort to leave Ada at exactly the right time to take advantage of wind conditions that would help push them to Lawrence.

Each plane is racing against itself in one sense. The aircraft, which range in size from 100 horsepower to 600 horsepower and can fly from 125 miles per hour to more than 200 miles per hour, are rated in terms of how quickly they are expected to make the trip. In other words, if the plane flew at its maximum-rated speed for the entire trip, how long would it take? Trying to come close to, or even beat, that expected maximum speed is the name of the game. The aircraft that flies the fastest relative to its expected speed is the overall winner.

The Western Michigan University team of Amanda Charlton, Olivia Arnold and Kelly Kay had a strong plan. They had done their homework — they are used to homework, after all — and picked an altitude that they believed would produce the most favorable winds. And for the first part of the trip, it was working splendidly as a brisk tailwind pushed them along.

Then, they hit the 20-knot headwind.

“That was not helpful,” said Charlton, the pilot.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Pilot Amanda Charlton and co-pilot Kelly Kay, both from Kalamazoo, Mich., discuss their recent flight from Ada, Okla. to Lawrence as part of the Air Race Classic.

Now, it is time to regroup before the plane and crew take off for the 302-mile trip from Lawrence to Mt. Vernon, Illinois.

“This one threw us for a loop,” said Arnold, the navigator, “but we’re not through yet.”

Far from it.

Foy, the volunteer, can attest to that. She is a 2006 winner of this race. She has done 15 of these types of timed races and said the first four or five are really about learning the ropes.

“Then you can really start drilling down and learn what makes a difference,” she said.

Perhaps not surprisingly, weight — as in how many pounds you are carrying in the aircraft — makes a big difference. Perhaps surprisingly, though, is how much even the smallest amount of weight can make a difference.

“You start weighing everything,” Foy said. “You start weighing your headsets, your maps, everything because the lighter you are, the faster you go.”

That’s a good race strategy but perhaps a tough business environment for the food truck that was stationed at the Lawrence airport selling breakfast burritos and barbecue. It may make it tough to sell many second helpings.

But, if it helps you win, Foy promises that passing on some barbecue is worth it. A victory can go a long way for the female pilot skilled enough to grab it.

“It really shows you what you can do,” Foy said.

But even when the race is over, it is not really over. Foy said her races opened up a broader world to her.

“These races are what led me to wander away from my own home airport,” she said.

She and her aircraft have now been to 47 of the 50 states. In fact, Foy actually lives in Spicewood, Texas but made the three-hour flight to help Maloney, who is a friend who has long been active in the world of timed aircraft racing. Maloney played a role in landing a spot for Lawrence in this year’s race.

Foy said she thought nothing of flying to Lawrence for the event. She makes the trip frequently to visit her friend. It is a perk of the worldview that aviation has given her.

“My premise is that you can get to almost anywhere — if you go one stop at a time,” she said.

photo by: John English

Pilot Naiara Petralanda, of Lady Lake, Fla., checks the oil on her aircraft on June 22, 2022 at Lawrence Regional Airport. Petralanda was a racer in the Air Race Classic that made a stop in Lawrence.