Formula 1 air racing is not international and one man, with a lot of help from the teams, is working to expand it.

STEAD (Sept. 15) – Jeff Zaltman has a dream, one he hopes will bring Formula 1 Air Racing mainstream attention. And with two international air races under his belt, he’s ready for more.

Jeff Zaltman, who heads AirRace1, has been working on a World Cup for Formula 1 Air Racing and now its a reality.

“We’re based in Barcelona, Spain and I’m the managing director of the company AirRace1,” he said. “We organize the AirRace1 World Cup which is the international series for Formula 1 air racing. We actually work very closely with the Formula 1 Air Racing Association, IF1, which runs the races in Reno here.”

He added IF1 sanctions the Formula races around the world with their counterparts in the U.K. and France.

“And together they sanction our series, Air Race World Cup as the international title for Formula 1 Air Racing and of course here in Reno it’s the National Championship,” he said.

The Formula 1 part of the hanger is a bee hive of activity as crews prepare their racing planes for the National Championship Air Races.

As a pilot he got interested in Formula 1 air races after watching what the competitors were doing.

“Why is this not known in the world, why aren’t these guys famous on the street?” He said. “And about 10 or 12 years ago I started organizing air races, a slightly different kind called the AeroGP, as well as multi disciplinary events and started taking those around the world.”

While he had some success Zaltman realized that Formula 1 is the oldest class of air racing.

“It’s the only class of air racers where the airplanes are actually built to race,” he said. “While the other classes are wonderful and beautiful they are airplanes built for other missions and put in a race. Where this is the one they build the planes just for racing.”

So he decided to go for the “pure stuff,” and said he’ll be the promoter for what exists from a community with a 70-year history including 50-years of racing in Reno.

“Our goal is to take Formula 1 out to be as popular as NASCAR, Baseball and Formula 1 car racing. And make it a mainstream household event,” he said.

This year the first F1 World Cup event brought the first pylon race to the continent of Africa and then the first pylon race in Spain.

“They do Formula 1air racing in the U.K. but they haven’t done it in about 20-years until now and we’re going to be there very soon again,” he said. “Same with France but in a casual way as the pilots get together and race. But we’re professionalizing it, formalizing it, making it an international series so pilots could actually make a living at it and generate sponsorship.”

He said the events get televised all over the world however Reno gets very little coverage.

“We’re here to help them with this. By virtue of us having good television coverage, at least internationally we’re going to let them attract some of that attention.”

His show will be on Fox Sports in the U.S. on a tape-delayed basis so it won’t be shown for at least two months.

Asked about the reaction to the international events Zaltman said, “It was amazing, phenomenal, like the whole country in Tunisia knew about it, everyone was talking about it and the support from these guys was amazing. I mean these guys were heroes and everyone out there was super supportive.”

He added people overseas really took an interest in the sport, not as just spectators but they wanted to know how it actually worked. He mentioned it was the same situation in Spain.

First event this year was in Monastir, Tunisia while the second event was held in Lleida, Catalunya, an area that has a history of motorsport tradition.

“They’re taking us under their wing as one of their new events that’s in a portfolio they show other cities in the region,” he said. “So the AirRace1 World Cup has found a very good home there and we’re expanding around Europe.”

At present he’s working on new venues but can’t say exactly where these will be. In the near future Zaltman expects the schedule to be expanded as he brings Formula 1 air races to new locations and audiences.

“Next year we’re expecting another new venue but I can’t quite announce it yet as we do that jointly with them,” he said.

One challenge has been the requirement that pilots who want to race at Reno have to attend the Pylon Racing Seminar. He said that’s understandable as Reno has been the only place air racing has been going on.

“What we are able to do in those other countries is to qualify under the same exact regime, same exact qualification curriculum to certify pilots to race in those other events,” he said. “But that doesn’t count in Reno as you have to go through PRS. And I understand that because that’s the way its been done.”

He’s looking for a solution as right now most of the European pilots are inhibited from coming here to race. The reason is the expense of traveling here for PRS, returning home then coming back in September.

And of course that includes shipping their aircraft back and fourth across the world.

“We’ve got 20 to 30 pilots in Europe that are saying I can’t afford two trips. They might come for PRS one year then race the next year,” he said.

So his goal is to get an extension of PRS overseas, which he’s now working on.

“Then we can probably double our field of pilots here,” he said. “Our goal is to get back up to 24, which will be a Gold, Silver, Bronze full fields of eight. That’s our goal in the next couple of years.”

Despite the challenges he’s very optimistic about the future of international Formula 1 Air Racing.

“I’m more than optimistic. I’m naive, ignorant, bull headed, ambitious, whatever, all those things trying to make this thing work,” he said. “Lot of challenges, lot of fun, couldn’t do it without the support of all the teams that are absolutely motivated, contributing all their time and their own expenses to get out there, cross the oceans to have races elsewhere. It’s a big commitment from everybody and I myself have put my life savings into this company and trying to make it work.”

The World Cup trophies will be presented at the awards banquet Sunday a few hours after the Unlimited Gold race has ended.

Check www.airrace1.com for further information on the international series.

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