SkyFiesta 2026: Solid Show, Findlay Again for Gold

SkyFiesta, the Sport class air race and air show in Las Cruces, New Mexico, is becoming a pleasant landmark on the fall calendar. Now in its second year of unrestricted racing, SkyFiesta offers a full class of Sport class pylon racing in a compact, single-day format.

This year, a growing complement of fast machinery in the headlining Gold heat promised some high-speed action. After sitting out the National Championship Air Races in Roswell last month, multi-time Sport champion Andrew Findlay was on hand to take on all challengers with what he thought was a healthy Super Legacy.

Secret to Andrew Findlay’s combination of twin-turbo Continental power and slicked Lancair Legacy airframe is after a decade of racing, it’s well sorted.

Tom McNerney, the Sport Gold winner at Roswell just a month ago, was the next favorite. For good reasons, however, McNerney’s Super Legacy has yet to run at full chat, and the question was if he was ready to risk everything firewall-forward in a 400-mph duel with Findlay this time around.

Another dark horse was Peter Balmer in the venerable Race 44. Word is the recently revamped Super Legacy has all the stuff and is one to watch, but unfortunately, at its Roswell debut from overhaul, Balmer and crew learned turbochargers are expendable items (News Flash: Everything is expendable in racing). Balmer is Swiss and commutes to the U.S. to race, so he and underappreciated main man Fred Roscher were not able to get fresh huffers hung in time for Las Cruces, so Race 44 was a no-show.

A highly detailed build and still practically new, Tom McNerney’s Too Much sports all the tricks except sponsorship. He cruised to second in the SkyFiesta Gold race.

Then there is the weather. Unseasonable rain was forecast to sit atop SkyFiesta, but just days before the big day on Saturday, October 17, the rain threat evaporated, leaving behind a cool, blustery, post-cold-front chill. It was gorgeous weather to look at for sure, with crystalline desert air and a deep blue sky, but hoodies and jackets were the uniform of the day given the mid-60s temps and a steady south wind. To a man, everyone agreed it beat roasting under the merciless New Mexico summer sun a month earlier.

All told, there were 21 Sport class racers at Las Cruces; perfect for three heats of seven airplanes each.

Joe Coraggio’s Lancair is a whole lot more than nitrous. Numerous custom bits by Dave Anders and others are found throughout both engine and airframe.

Running a 100 hp nitrous hit, Tim Slater’s Race 10 is at the end of one engine program and about to start another.

Kevin Eldredge’s Gryphon is dedicated to 600-plus cubic inch, naturally aspirated power from AC-Aero in Bakersfield, California.

While SkyFiesta is a one-day event for the public, the Sport class was assembled two days earlier for formation clinics, qualifying, and a single set of heat races on Friday afternoon. Most memorable of these preliminaries was watching Jason Rovey zip through the Bronze pack like a P-51 in a balloon race; his nitrous-assisted RV-8 is one of a handful of boosted RVs that in level flight trots along north of the stock RV Vne, and no wonder he ended up winning the Bronze race on Saturday at a 247 mph average speed.

Saturday brought just slightly warmer temperatures to make a postcard day of it. The racing format is perfectly simple: one each Gold, Silver, and Bronze races in the mid-morning and afternoon. One change from last year was the starts. Instead of coming “down the chute” over the spectators’ right shoulder to enter the course in the middle of the first turn, the new SkyFiesta policy uses a “T-6 start” where the contestants rush down the start-finish straight. It’s a different look everyone seemed to prefer.

In the Bronze race, Allen Floyd unfortunately retired his Long-EZ almost immediately with an unknown derangement, but without drama, as he landed normally on the front straight runway with no visible damage. Back on track, Jason Rovey toyed with Skylor Piper before taking the lead for good on the second lap. There was some close flying between Scott Prewitt and Shawn Jordan for third and fourth, but in the end, all the passing was done by the second lap sorting out. The sketchiest thing of the entire race was watching the fire/rescue quad pinning it down the runway in pursuit of Floyd as he rolled out of his mayday.

Easily the racing action highlight was the three-way dogfight for the Silver crown. Bijan Maleki, Dee Child, and Colleen Sterling had a race-long, 290-mph discussion over who would win, leading the normally hyperventilating announcer to exceed himself, but the truth was Maleki was low and tight, Sterling was close astern and just outside of Maleki’s wake, while Child in the faster airplane held a high and wide line, effectively locking the trio in place. Without coming in closer, Child’s slight speed advantage was negated, but it was a good time watching the jockeying.

Colleen Sterling and husband David Sterling have been racing Sport and Jet class for years. Colleen’s tactics are polished, quiet, and increasingly getting results. She flew a smart race to win Silver at SkyFiesta.

Dee Child had just enough speed at SkyFiesta for a possible win but was on the outside from the start. He garnered a very close second in the tightest race of the day.

Bijan Maleki had the low and inside line in the exciting Silver race that looked like a dead heat with Colleen Sterling but turned into a disqualification for low flying.

At the finish, it was indeed very close, with Maleki and Sterling too close to call for the win, and Child still wide but clearly in third. Or so we thought, until Maleki was disqualified for flying too low, giving the win to a deservingly patient and calculating Colleen Sterling, who “did what I could” to conserve what speed she had with her tight line on Maleki. As for the low-flying DQ, it seems a beheading for jaywalking as we didn’t see anything egregiously in the weeds, but the Sport class is nothing if not safety conscious, and there are rules about such things.

One of the many pleasantries about a single-day, single-class race date on an appropriately sized airfield is how quickly the schedule moves along. The taxiing out and recovery goes quickly, as does the takeoff and formation join, and before it seemed possible, the anticipated Gold competitors were chasing off after Vicky Benzing in the P-51 pace plane.

All the smart money was on Andrew Findlay for the win, as he really doesn’t like second place and has the proven hardware to take the fight over 400 mph if necessary. However, when Tom McNerney was first over the starting line and around the corner, then Findlay going low and inside in mid-turn, only to have McNerney starting the second lap again in first place, there were thoughts this could be a humdinger. Or just Findlay, who knows how to please the crowd, making things interesting.

Kept in primer after a rebuild because he’s always working on it, Jason Rovey’s nitrous-assisted -8 is one speedy RV. Numerous aero details are at least as important as the giggle gas in this airplane’s pace.

Wind was a constant for racers, show performers, and the fans alike at SkyFiesta. The post-cold-front chill was a welcome change; from left: Joe Coraggio, Tim Slater, and Andrew Findlay beat upwind past the home pylon.

Undaunted Air Shows’ two-ship RV act is both a SkyFiesta staple and likely the best two-ship act today. Their creative breaks and rejoins are a joy to watch, and they definitely get all there is to get from an RV.

Only post-race did we learn both competitors were—as usual for these high-strung Gold aircraft—tending to engine management concerns. Findlay had been chasing surging power for two days, as we could hear while shooting photos out on the pylons, along with a plain old dumb wear hole in the SCEET tubing feeding one of his turbos. But he got the power sorted sufficiently to turn up the wick later in the second lap, and pull a slowly increasing lead on McNerney.

As for Tom, he was watching temperatures and adjusting power accordingly. Most of the race seemed to be run in the 70 inches of manifold pressure range, with short spikes into the 90s and possibly some lower, engine-conserving settings once the anticipated Findlay-McNerney run order had been set. But in any case, as was likely going into the weekend, Las Cruces 2026 wasn’t the go-for-broke run at the front of the Gold, but it was still a 370-mph romp.

So, even if a bit of a runaway by the front pair, they wowed the crowd with an unmistakable, thrilling display of twin-turbo power. Findlay eventually had a half a straight lead on McNerney, while together the two of them put even the ripping nitrous effort of Joe Coraggio’s Lancair half a lap back in third, with Coraggio spanking Tim Slater in an also-squeezed Glasair III by another half lap. Even running 309 mph, Slater was just barely lapped at the home pylon by the galloping Findlay.

In his first Sport class race in nine years, David Sterling did well in the family Lancair, finishing fifth at 305 mph and thus a bit short of Slater. John Flanagan was sixth in a Glasair III at 292 mph.

Vicky Benzing flew the feathers off Plum Crazy at SkyFiesta as both airshow act and Gold race pace plane. Vicky said she puts about 40 hours a year on Plum Crazy; reliable, it was untouched since raced at Roswell last month.

In the “we were robbed” category, Kevin Eldredge came up luckless again at SkyFiesta. He had his 600-plus cubic inch, all-motor, no-nitrous Glasair III finally sounding good after finding a raspy exhaust leak on Friday, only to have the nosegear tire go flat while taxiing out for the Gold final! If there’s a new way to frustrate, it seems fate assigns Eldredge the task of finding out. It’s a shame, as Eldredge was the missing piece between Coraggio’s completely pissed-off nitrous Lancair and Slater’s more modestly squeezed Glasair. And to take that thinking further, a schedule conflict kept Conrad Huffstutler from SkyFiesta, and he would have fit Breathless right into this interesting mid-pack Gold grouping. Next year, or maybe even sooner, as the Sport class runs Roswell, too.

For outright speed, spectacle, and selling aviation to young enthusiasts, it was a good Sport class show, especially the zooming pull-ups at race’s end by Findlay, McNerney, and Coraggio. Arcing seemingly straight up into the near-cobalt New Mexico blue gave joy to even the most jaded race fan, and more than their pylon pace, an attention-getting display of just how much energy these homemade speedsters deliver.

Talking to McNerney post-race, he said he’s mainly head down in the cockpit during the pull-up off the course. Busy with opening the wastegates and pulling the throttle, it was a few seconds before he caught a look outside and cracked a sly grin as he arced almost inverted to ultimately roll upright so many thousands of feet above Las Cruces. And we wonder why they go to all the trouble.

As we enter the offseason, we’re left with when someone will take the fight to Findlay. Both McNerney and Balmer should have the chops for this major undertaking, but it will depend on sponsorship and commitment. Pushing past the 390-mph mark in machines wound tightly enough to hurt themselves is “here be dragons” territory on the financial map, so there has to be good reasons to do it.

Just below the hero-class Gold leaders is an interesting stew of happy-to-race and upcoming ambitions. Slater has a long-term engine program in development to include a fresh engine, more nitrous, and then turbos, while Kevin Eldredge and Conrad Huffstutler enjoy a personal contest over who does the most naturally aspirated. All of which is not to count out the aspirations brewing in the Silver and Bronze cohorts.

Ultimately, SkyFiesta 2026 was a solid event. There was plenty of paddling under the surface, but the event ran smoothly, safely, and entertainingly. Inside word is the New Mexico tourist authorities, who play a huge role in ensuring this event takes place, were pleased, and growing SkyFiesta to a wider audience is the goal. That’s great, but this smart regional show and national-level race is a pleasure to the dedicated race fan now, and we’re looking forward to SkyFiesta 2027.

Starting races on the front straight guarantees a tight group where the crowd can see it. Here Jason Rovey begins his flag-to-flag lead at the start of Saturday’s Bronze race.

SkyFiesta 2026 Results

Sport Gold

PlacePilotAircraftAvg Speed (mph)Notes1Andrew FindlayLancair Legacy3522Tom McNerneyLancair Legacy3463Joe CoraggioLancair Legacy3064Tim SlaterGlasair III2925David SterlingLancair Legacy2866Joe FlanaganGlasair III278DNSKevin EldredgeGlasair IIIFlat nosegear tire while taxiing for Gold final

Sport Silver

PlacePilotAircraftAvg Speed (mph)Notes1Colleen SterlingLancair Legacy2912Dee ChildGlasair III2903Blake PrewittGlasair III2694Bob MillsRocket 62605Paul DowningLancair 360255DQBijan MalekiGlasair IIIDQ low flying (first place on course)

Sport Bronze

PlacePilotAircraftAvg Speed (mph)Notes1Jason RoveyRV-82472Skylor PiperRV-82363Scott PrewittF1 Rocket2314Shawn JordanRV-42345Doug RybczynskiLong-EZ2196Steve SenegalRV-42077Matthew JernejcicRV-7200

There was always something to see at SkyFiesta. The post SkyFiesta 2026: Solid Show, Findlay Again for Gold appeared first on AvBrief.com.