Keith Essex Wins It

Keith Essex is the 2024 United States National Open Class Soaring Champion!  

On a classic Minden soaring day that saw nine pilots finish the task with speeds north of 100 mph, Keith Essex closed the deal by a margin of 103 points over Jim Lee!  It wasn’t easy.  Jim ripped around the task at 111.28 mph, but not quite enough to catch Keith in the overall point standing.  If you’ve been keeping up with the ever increasing daily speeds here, you know that means that Jim has won the Larissa Stroukoff Memorial Trophy for the fastest flight in the National Open Class Contest.  Congratulations Jim, and huge congratulations to Keith Essex for his consistently fast and inventive performance! 

Keith was presented with the Richard C. du Pont Memorial Trophy at last night’s awards banquet at the Carson Vally Inn.  It was a fine evening, featuring a continuous show of the great photos taken by Evelyn Tovar, our Contest Photographer.  A collection of Evelyn’s great photography can be enjoyed on the SSA Facebook Page. 

The winners of Day 8 are:  Jim Lee at his award-winning 111.28 mph max-effort flight, John Cochrane Second Place at 110.33 and Keith Baugh was Third at 109.38 mph.   

Then, after presenting the Stroukoff Trophy to Jim, CD John Good read the list of the nine pilots mentioned earlier who finished the final task at over 100 mph.  Here they are:  Lee, Cochrane, Baugh, Essex, Ittner, Greenhill, Alexander, Taylor and Payne.

Jim and Kathy Lee are the driving force that organized and ran this National Championship.  Minden has had airport issues (what airport hasn't?), but with new, user-friendly airport management, MINDEN IS BACK!  So, we thank Jim, Kathy and Airport Manager Heather MacDonnell and her staff for a safe and perfectly enjoyable contest! 

Then, Jim took the microphone and thanked each person who volunteered their time, energy and sweat to made it all happen.  There were fifty-eight volunteers on that list!  Fifty-eight who made it possible for 21 pilots to compete.  Because of them, MINDEN IS BACK!

What a contest!

DL