Balloon Race Postponed by Wind Gusts

Gusty winds forced officials to postpone the start of the Gordon Bennett distance balloon race Saturday night.

The 9 p.m. decision by race director Tom Heinsheimer disappointed participants, who were told earlier to expect some of the best flying weather in years.

Four teams had been scheduled to lift off in multicolored helium balloons under moonlit skies between 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.

When the gusts increased to 25 m.p.h., Heinsheimer set the new launch time between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. this morning.

Balloonist Joe Kittenger was going for his fourth victory in the Rosie O’Grady. Kittenger captured his latest victory last year with co-pilot Sherry Reed, landing on a remote Mexican island after traveling 353.4 miles.

“I didn’t drive all this way not to win,” said Kittenger, of Orlando, Fla. “One of the great things about this race is that you don’t have any idea where you’re going to land.”

The winner’s balloon is the one that lands farthest away, in any direction.

Meteorologist Carl Garczynski predicted the winds this year will blow eastward at up to 40 m.p.h. at the 12,000-foot level, pushing the winning balloon to a landing point as far as the Midwest sometime Monday.

The race, named for New York Herald publisher Gordon Bennett, was inaugurated in 1906.