Saturday - race day!  I woke up Saturday morning to clouds and drizzling rain, but by 11am, that famous San Diego sunshine was back in full force and it looked a beautiful day for the coming air race:

I had some time before I had to meet up with the fine folks from Breitling, so I decided to take up a friend's recommendation to stop by Moo Time at the Del Coronado for ice cream:

As I was lead to believe, the ice cream was fantastic - the made-that-day freshness was apparent.  I enjoyed it even more than my current favorite ice cream spot, Cold Stone Creamery.

Soon it was time to head back out to the High Flyer's Lounge and for the start of the race!

The view from the High Flyer's Lounge of the San Diego Bay and the race course was fantastic!

As the official timekeeper for the event, Breitling had a large clock on display which showed the time for each pilot's run:

The announcer cleared the first pilot onto the course with the signature catch phrase of the Air Race World Series - "SMOKE ON!"  With that, the pilot zoomed through the Breitling start/finish pylons and began his run - the pilots usually zoomed in between 200 and 250 MPH at the start of their run:

Here's a shot taken from one of the heliocopters which was recording the event. You can see the USS Midway in this photo, as well as just a few of the more than 50,000 spectators who watched the race:

A few shots from the race:

Nigel Lamb surprised everyone at the event with a stunning 3rd place finish in the Breitling plane - his first time on the winner's podium all season:.  

Brittish pilot Paul Bonhomme was the 1st place winner - a fantastic birthday victory for Bonhomme: