ORIGINAL: LouW
The pylon racer will often enter the turn a little high, roll into a vertical bank, pull as much additional lift as possible without stalling the wing and accept the inevitable loss of altitude during the tightest part of the turn.
I know the pylon racers at our field spend a lot of time trimming to get very little drop or rise at turn 1.
As BMatthews said they "coast" in this vertical bank condition momentarily before rolling out of the turn. They would not intentionally fly actual knife-edge, as the resulting sideslip would add drag that would eliminate the advantage of a tighter turn.
Sorry, my question on the Pylon racers was phrased poorly. I realize that a racer is not in an actual knife-edge and was really trying to describe the relatively "vertical bank" that seems to start early in the turn. I've called "cuts" at turn 1 at a couple of events and (from the side of the field) it sure looks like the planes are flying with banked wings but straight as an arrow. Thinking on this, if the pylon racer is going 150 mph it would take several seconds and several football fields to turn in a 1 or 2 g bank. So Bruce must be correct the entry and exit from the turn look really stretched out because of the velocity of the planes. Clearly the appearance of straight flight is enhanced by a side view, also.
I'm still wondering if the final quick and violent change in direction, in this case, is done by elevator input (to maximize AOA and force a very high-g turn) or is it just banked to nearly vertical?
At the speeds they are going you would not expect much of a vertical drop in the fraction of a second that it takes to do the sharpest part of the turn, even if you lost all vertical lift.
Carl