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2016 IF1 Endeavor Runway Accident<br/>Dear Race Fans and IF1 family, On Sunday, September 18, 2016, at the 2016 National Championship Air Races, two aircraft collided during the start of the international Formula One Gold race. Endeavor was one of the aircraft and I was one of the pilots. Thankfully, only the hand of the other pilot was injured. Below is a video of the accident taken from my cockpit camera. WARNING, IT CONTAINS GRAPHIC CRASH FOOTAGE AND STRONG LANGUAGE. I was in the middle of the third row, and as you can see in the video, the flagman with a red flag leaves the runway and walks off to the right. The starter for the row (off camera to the right) raises a flag in preparation for the start of the race. The starter then waived the flag forcefully in a downward motion signaling the start of the race, and the third row accelerates down the runway. As I raised the tail of my aircraft, the aircraft in the second row came into view stopped on the runway. I attempted to pull the aircraft into the air while banking right. One second later my left wing sheared off the top of the vertical fin of the aircraft stopped on the runway ahead of me, my left gear impacted his right wing, causing the left wheel assembly of my aircraft to depart my gear leg, and drove my left gear leg through my left wing. My right gear leg sheared off an outer section of his right wing, and my left wing shattered his raised canopy while impacting the right hand of the other pilot. My propeller slashed three gashes in his right wing several feet to the right of the cockpit. I landed immediately in front of the stopped aircraft and ground looped to the left. I apologize for the profanity expressed in the video. At the time I thought I had seriously injured my close friend and fellow competitor. Once I shut off the fuel, electrical and mags, I jumped out of the airplane, helmet and parachute still on, and ran to the other pilot to determine if he was O.K. As I am also the President of the International Formula One Pylon Air Racing (IF1) class, I have asked a current and well respected IF1 pilot to head a committee to investigate the accident and bring recommendations to mitigate the risk of a reoccurrence back to the IF1 Board of directors. As we are a professional organization we must look to events and learn from them. I don’t know the extent of the damage to Endeavor yet, but I have the support of my wife, crew and you. We will be back next year. Fly Fast, Fly Low, Turn Left.