LOVELOCK - The Lover's Aloft Balloon Festival had a record amount of balloonist participation this year. Twenty-one balloons took part in the festival.
"This was a record year for us. Everyone had a great time," said Pat Irwin, one of the organizers of the festival.
Winds hampered the Light up the Night glow show scheduled for Valentine's night and the Sunday morning Hare and the Hound race, but weather was perfect Saturday for the festival's signature race, the Ribbon Race.
Winners of the Ribbon Race were Pat Irwin in his balloon Patriot and Jeff Halizer in his balloon Synchronicity. The balloons stayed connected with their ribbon for an hour and a few seconds.
Because Sunday's Hare and the Hound race was called off, organizers made the decision to award the second place team of the Ribbon Race with the first and second place awards for the Hare and the Hound. So Gene Love, pilot of Liberty, took the first place award. Brann Smith, who rocked the airwaves by proposing to his girlfriend while Bob FM radio station was broadcasting live from his Skydancer balloon, took the second place award.
Awarding the third place award took some creative thinking by Lover's Aloft organizers. During the Hare and the Hound race balloonist are required to throw a marker at an X that is placed in the desert by the Hare balloon. The pilot whose marker is closest to the X is the winner of that event.
At the Sunday morning pilots' breakfast organizers produced a box that pilots had to throw their marker into from a distance. Orval Choate pilot of Air Flambé got his marker closest to the box, thus winning the third place spot.
All winning pilots received trophies donated by Temptations with silver plats donated by Coeur Rochester.
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