Balloon race is a feast for the eyes

By LIZ MAPLES
Staff Writer

Hometown Radio Network’s Rick Schoebel has helped organize the 
Great American Balloon Race for eight years, and has never ridden in a 
hot air balloon. 

This won’t be the year either — he’s scared of heights — but he 
promises it will be “pretty as a postcard” from the ground.

The balloons will begin to inflate at 5 p.m. and lift off about 7 p.m. at the Stuart-Powell Field at Danville-Boyle County Airport in Junction City. It is 
scheduled for Friday and if rain or wind conditions aren’t right it will be that same time June 15. 

The race is really a test of accuracy, called a hare-and-hound. The first balloon, the hare balloon, will take off and find a clear spot to land. The pilot will lay out a tarp with an “X” in the middle. Each participant will try to follow the hare’s path, find the “X” and drop a bag of grass seed on top of it. The closest bag of grass is the winner.

For spectators the race is a feast for the eyes.

“It really is a magical time when everything comes together and it’s the 
eve of the festival,” said Robert Wagner, general manager of the 
Hometown Radio Network.

Euphouria, a four-man brass band from Tennessee, will play. Other 
entertainers will be: The Ohio Wheelman, who ride old-fashioned bikes; 
and Scott Kirby’s ragtime music played on his piano on wheels. For the 
children there will be inflatable play areas.

Wagner and Schoebel do ask that people attending wait until the chaser 
crews have left the grounds. The crews are responsible for tracking the 
balloons — flight patterns are unpredictable — and packing the 
balloons up. 

Directions to the balloon race:
To get there, take U.S. 127 (Hustonville Road) south past Wal-Mart 
SuperCenter. Turn left at the second road (Old U.S. 127) past the 
Wal-Mart stoplight. The route will be marked.
Airport Road turns left off this road just past Pack’s Nursery. The 
entrance to the balloon race is just to the right of a gray metal building. 
Do not use the main airport entrance. It is reserved for the balloonists. 
Organizers suggest bringing lawn chairs.