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About Us

Blue Thunder Air Racing was founded by John and Jan Parker in 1998. It was right about that time that Thunder Mustang composite kits came available to buy to build. It was also a thought that John's other company American Air Racing would be able to build and sell many of these planes, however they are such a labor intensive and time consuming endeavor, that dream never really came to fruition. Another dream did however, and that dream is Blue Thunder.

When the Thunder Mustang was ready to be painted, there was already a red plane and a green one, so a bold and exciting blue that changes color in different lighting was chosen. Blue Thunder's name was a very easy decision. It was Blue. It was a Thunder Mustang. Blue Thunder came to be. Blue Thunder is easily recognized amongst the competition, the electric blue plane is easily spotted on the horizon as it zooms past the pylons, and the competition.

If you ask John Parker how he got started in planes, he will laugh and tell you he was born with 1000 hours. Seriously though, John Parker was always interested in Airplanes and racing as a young boy. He always had a competitive spirit and it was an easy to make the connection to air racing. This interest took him as a young man into the Air Force, then later spent time as a pilot for American Airlines.

Being mechanically talented as well, John soon found himself building high performance engines for Formula One racing planes and worked as a mechanic at air races as a "speed merchant". John's passion for building and working on high performace planes turned into a thriving business, and in 1967, John founded American Air Racing.

In 1977, John won his very first Reno Championship Formula One Air Race. The years to come, he filled a trophy case with similar victories earned with talent, hard work, dedication, passion and some luck along the way.

His scratch-built Formula One racer, American Special, now resides in the EAA Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. John placed second in the original CAFE 250 and won the CAFE 400 in the twin-engine division in 1983. In 1988 John was the third person to enter a scratch-built aircraft in the Unlimited Division at Reno. John Parker has become an air racing icon.

The crew of Blue Thunder Air Racing is made up of a diverse group of caring, passionate and knowledgeable individuals, each bringing to Blue Thunder invaluable talents and resources we utilize. Each member of the crew works their hearts out and contributes to the best of their ability. We invite you to meet our talented crew!

Blue Thunder Air Racing also has a serious business side to it that involves offering advertisement opportunities to our sponsors. You see, without our sponsors, none of this would be possible. You may even wonder why someone would sponsor a racing plane. While you may have just saved the world yesterday, your sponsors want to know what you are doing for them now! So as we answer this question, we do it by building a faster plane, making improvements, attending new events and air shows, looking better and better to evolve and stay current with the times and technology trends. Simply put, we strive to get their name, and thus their product in front of as many people as possible.

Well if you have ever watched any sporting event, especially Nascar racing, you have been advertised to in a way known as "impressions". Each event that we attend is attended by many hundreds or even thousands of people including television and news crews, so the possible impressions is immeasurable, we are getting the sponsor's name out in front of those people!

Blue Thunder Air Racing supports our men and women in uniform.

Blue Thunder Air Racing would like to thank its sponsors; their generous support makes it all possible.