I would have liked to go flying today, but the airport was closed for the annual Race the Runway event, the biggest fund-raiser of the year. The airport needs the income to pay the bills, so I won’t complain.

The Race the Runway event allows Street-legal cars and motorcycles run a 1/2 mile course laid out on the 4,000 ft long runway. I was on parking duty from 0800 to 1400, so althougth I heard the sounds of the runs down the runway, I didn’t see much.

The top speeds for the four years the event has run are:

The 330 km/h Lamborghini ran off the end of the runway at the end of his last run in 2014 - he didn’t come back this year. The runway is only 4000 ft long, so 50 ft lost at the start before the timing starts, and the 1/2 mile acceleration only leaves 1310 ft for braking. If the driver has a 1/2 second reaction time after passing the 1/2 mile mark, he would need a deceleration of about 1.2g to get stopped - he got stopped after his first 330 km/h run, but not the second one.

Here we see a long line of cars, waiting for their turn on the runway.

There were also quite a few of show cars on display, including this gorgoeus Ford Model T street rod.

This rare De Tomaso Mangusta attracted quite a bit of attention.

The Carleton University Formula SAE team was there, with their two cars - one powered by a 250 cc single-cylinder engine, and the other one electric powered.