But Hey, It's All Good

It was a student take-over, plain and simple. No, not the kind of studen take-over that, in the 60s and 70s, led to the library being burned to a cinder and the smell of tear-gas wafting throughout the campus. Nope... in this case, the students of Purdue University lobbied hard for the right to host both the departure and arrival ceremonies at the 2005 Air Race Classic.

They won.

This year, 41 teams will compete in the multi-leg event, which gets underway Tuesday from Lafayette, IN. Each aircraft is handicapped according to its own flight performance. The team that beats the handicap by the most for the greatest length of time is declared the winner. With seven stops before returning to Purdue, each team has four days to complete the circuit.

That Purdue was chosen as this year's host city for the event wasn't really a shot in the dark. After all, it was where Amelia Earhardt taught and is home to the largest collection of Amelia memorabilia in the world. But that it was selected as the starting AND finishing point for the Classic -- now that's something different.

It means the students of Purdue, led by graduate student Keri Wiznerowicz, had to work especially hard.

"Usually the Classic starts and ends in different cities," Keri told ANN. "But we wanted to host the whole thing."

But hosting twice the events meant raising twice the money. Keri and company rose to the task and were able to obtain $55,000 in sponsorships from both the school and a number of participating companies.

(Contributor Libby Woelfert is at Purdue for the event and will report for ANN throughout the week on happenings at the Air Race Classic. Stay tuned! --ed.)

FMI: www.airraceclassic2005.org