Through The Years

We are currently working on uncovering the history of our event. We are compiling it all here and will continually be updating it as information becomes available. Please check back regularly.

2021

weathered out

2020

Postponed

2019

1ST Place Jeremy Rubin

2nd Place Scott Armstrong

3rd Place Kirk Bloom

4th Place Grant Pfeifer

5th Place Leroy Clair

2018

1/6

1ST Place Jon Shelton

2nd Place Cory Bloom

3rd Place Rob Nutting

4th Place Tyler Thompson

5th Place Brandon Bloom

2017

1ST Place Jason Loving

2nd Place Tom Ricke

3rd Place Grant Pfeifer

4th Place Cory Bloom

5th Place Terry Hayes

1/13

1/5

2016

1st place Jon Shelton
2nd place Tyler THOMPSON
3rd place Aaron Folske

1/11

2015

1st place Jeremy Rubin

2014

Fri pm - too windy, flight cancelled. Sat am - too windy. Sat pm - strong storms, even the carnival was shut down. Sun am - low layer of clouds & low visibility, flight cancelled

1/6

2013

Winner – Mother Nature. Benji Clemons & Ron Nollen flew Friday night, others glowed. Sat a.m., flight cancelled. Sat pm, task cancelled, but a few balloon flew & a few glowed. Sun a.m., flight cancelled.

1/4

2012

Saturday a.m. - four part task. Many pilots made the field, but unable to make the targets further on. One task was a Min Distance Double Drop, with the first triangle at the field & the 2nd at the last target. Most pilots unable to get to the second target. Saturday pm - sadly rain cancelled the flight & glow. Sunday a.m. - pilots went to the field only to find a low level jet that had 35+ knot winds. Bill called a two part task, but put pilots on a short weather hold to see if the winds above would diminish. After the hold, it was determined we could get some “good old-fashioned Midwest flying” in and pilots were released to launch. Most flew to the last target on the left and landed in the same field.

First place - Matt Fenster Second place - Brad Craig who also won the Iowa State Championship.

1/2

2011

one flight Friday night, the rest of the weekend weathered out.

2010

1ST place Benji Clemons

1/9

2009

2 flights, 1 glow. 45 balloons

1st place - Jeremy Rubin, 2nd - Leroy Clair, 3rd - Brad Craig.

1/57

2008

A wise suggestion was given at the first pilot’s meeting - “Before you land, look down, if you can see yourself, don’t land there!”

1 flight.

Brad Craig & Michael Suchy tied for first place, Kirk Bloom finished in third place.

1/24

1/28

2007

Lots of standing around waiting for the weather to improve.

1/27

2006

2 flights & 1 glow.

#1 – Terry McGonegle.

2nd place Christine Bertsch,

3rd Eldon Benus,

4th Scott Armstrong

1/19

2005

3 flights, 1 glow.

1. Maury Petrehn 2. Benji Clemons 3. Leroy Clair

1/31

2004

4 flights

1. Mark Harris 2. Aaron Foelske 3. Brian Bennett

2003

1st. Jim Thompson

2nd. Tom Klitz

3rd. Benji Clemons

2002

1st Jim Thompson

2nd Rich Jaworski and Brad Craig placed third.

2001

1/19

38 pilots, 4 flights.

1 - Maury Petrehn

2 - Rich Jaworski

3 - Matt Fenster.

No rain this year!

2000

It was raining when pilots arrived in town on Friday & was still raining when pilots left Saturday with record rainfall in between. The only ones that had fun on the launch field were the ducks & geese swimming in the puddles

1999

1/4

Record number of balloons – 44 registered for the 22nd Annual;

2 fun flights,

one competition flight, one glow.

#1 Terry McGonegle

#2 Tom Ricke

#3 Scott Moon

#4 Dick Drake,

#5 Mark Harris

1998

1/1

1st - Dale Dommer,

2nd Rob Bartholomew

3rd Maury Petrehn

1997

30 balloons registered for the 20th Annual Ottumwa Pro Balloon Race; Fri night - a few balloons flew, some glowed; Sat p.m. only 1 balloonist flew, others glowed.

Winner - John Johnson, 2nd – Maury Petrehn, 3rd – Ralph Rieck

1996

33 balloons; no flights. 19th annual Pro Balloon Race. Prize money divided up between all the pilots attending. “Rain, wind… you name it and we had it”

1995

19th Annual; 35 pilots; 2 flights Saturday morning task – pilot declared goal with 3 targets to pick.

Sunday morning’s tasks – drop a Ping-Pong ball in the middle of a tire located in a pond next to the balloon field, then a target on the field. Dave Tallant won first place in both tasks.

#1 Dave Tallant

#2 Pat Fogue

#3 Mike Hadley.

Sherry Allsup presented with an award for 18 years of flying in Ottumwa

1994

35 balloons; out of staters took all the money and the thieves left with the CB radios; all possible flights flown -

#1 Peggy Ogland (Mueller)

#2 Maury Petrehn

#3 Ron Nollen

#4 Jim Thompson,

#5 J.J. Johnson

1993

canceled due to floods in the area

1992

1st - Gary Cass flying Casstastrophe II
2nd - Jim Pearson flying CloudBurner
3rd - Jim Thompson flying Shazam

1990

1991

1989

1988

2 flights flown. Sunday a.m. – winds calmed during flight. Many pilots low on fuel. Ralph Rieck filled to 29.5 gal (30 gal tanks). Dan Terry took his keys up with him for the 2nd time in 1 wk. He threw them down to a man on a bicycle & asked him to take them to the crew.

#1 Denny Cox,

#2 John Johnson,

#3 Norm Dockstader,

#4 Dick Drake,

#5 Pat Fogue,

#6 Dan Terry,

#7 Rob Bartholomew,

#8 Jim Thompson,

#9 Dennis Tiege,

#10 Jim Christensen.

1987

1986

1985

Two flights, then leader Bill Gilson enlisted Elton Freeman to do a rain dance. Much to everyone’s surprise, it worked, so Sunday a.m. tasks cancelled.

1st Bill Gilson,

2nd – tie between Jim Oakes & Keith Creswell, 3rd Brian Bennett.

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

1979

1978

1977

Special thanks to Balloons Over Iowa and Carol Harris for the use of the articles and many of the photos!