November 2000
marks the 23rd year for The Great
Texas Balloon Race. What started out as
aballoontetherbyBillBusseyforthe
grand opening of the Longview Mall and
has developed into one of the best balloon
racesinthecountry.One cantell bythe
organization, the festivities and the spec-
tators that this a topnotch event. Activi-
tiesincludedangliderfireworksshow,
staticairplanedisplay, children’sactivi-
ties, family entertainment,musicconcerts
bothevenings, food booths and more.
It was my first trip to Longview and
allreportsthatIhaveheard,aside from
“It’s a great event,” is that it is HOT! and
hotitwas.ButsowereJoelSturdevant
andPhilGlebe whentheyeachgrabbed
theringsoffthepolesonSaturdayand
Sunday mornings.
The GTBR isa serious competition,
67sportballoonpilotswereregistered
along with another 15 special shapes hold-
ingtheirowncompetition.Therewas
moneytobe paidout50placesplusthe
two pole grabs each valued at $12,500.00.
Eachyearthepoleprizeseemstogeta
little smaller, maybe because each year of
the event, someoneseems to pluck it away.
Last year was the first time that someone
got the pole on both Saturday and Sunday
mornings but it happened in again in 2000.
Fridaymorning, JimBirk, competi-
tiondirector, calledthe tasks andthepi-
lots were off tofly over the cityand find
targetsthatweretuckedawayattwo
schools.It’salwaysinterestingcrewing
for the first time in a new city and addto
thataseriousphotohabit.Butwegot
oriented, watched the winds, determined
where tolaunch and gotJoel inthe air. I
hadmarked the maps the day before and
managed to make my way to both targets
in time to get a few baggie throws on film
and be in the ball field waiting whenJoel
made his final landing. After flying pilots
headed over to BRET (Balloon Repairs of
East Texas) where Guy & Sheri Gauthier
hostedbreakfastwithDick’sFamo us
Fridayeveningwasthetraditional
Longview glow. The special shapes were
lined up for a crowd pleasing spectacle as
the sun dropped from the sky and the full
moon came up, it was really a pretty sight.
Saturday morning you could feel the
excitement as everyone rushed out of the
briefing, hurrying to get a launch spot for
the Controlled Navigational Trajectory or
better known as a “KeyGrab.” The pilot
has one chance to fly their balloon to a 20
footpolewitha 12”ringattachedtothe
top.Addtothataminimumdistance
doubledropat the targetandflyontoa
multiple judge declared goal. That means
thatthepilotswouldbethrowingtwo
baggies into twoseparate triangles at the
target asclose toeachother astheycan
and try to get the 12” ringoff of the pole
atthesame time. Thatalone wouldcon-
fuse the average pilot but then fly in from
two miles and do it between 7:30 and 8:30
am and be the firstone there.
Joeldescribedhisexperience atthe
target.“Iwasconcentratingongetting
bothbaggies thrown and knew that I was
lined up reallywell. I looked up and saw
thering,threwmyfirstbaggie,putthe
second one in my mouth, vented the enve-
lope,hittheburner,grabbedthering,
threw it in the basket, grabbed the second
baggie, threw it, hit the burner and started
that is alsohow fastit allhappened. The
crowd went wild. Later talking with Glen
Moyer, race announcer,he said “ ittook
us a few minutes to identify the balloon as
Joel, we read his sponsor name before we
determined who he was.” We hadn’t met
our sponsor yet, but they followed Joel’s
balloon to the next targetandshowedup
as he landedtocongratulate him on cap-
turing the ring. They were very happy and
want tobe hissponsor againnext year.
The rest of the weekend was fun, we
glowed Saturday evening. Sunday morn-
ingwesetout togetthe ringagainonly
this time Phil Glebe beat everyone to the
poleandgotaringofhisown.Steve
Lombardi of Houston is quoted as saying
that “twice this weekend I flew right to an
empty pole.” The second targets onSun-
daywereabout30minutesnorthand
although most balloons got close, a lot did
notthrowbecause thescoringareawas
only150 feetat an intersection.
Steve Wilkerson from Californiatook
firstwith PatHarwell 2nd,3rdtoOwen
Keown. Pilots Rich Lawhorn, Sam Parks
and Ron Martintookthe top three places
intheSpecialShapescompetition.To
find out more about this event, go to their
websiteat www.greattexasballoonrace.org
to see the highlights and final scores.
Balloon Race
