I am a little surprised that there is so little accurate information about Bill Bennett and what he did. Mr. Bennett loved models. If memory serves, he was an AMA Fellow. He had an empire in Las Vegas. He ran (was the major stockholder) the Circus Circus conglomerate for a long time(Circus Circus, Excalibur, Luxor and others). He, at one point, had a Hobby Shop/Distributorship in Las Vegas known as Circus Circus Hobbies. In more recent years, he owned the Sahara. He was one of the richest men in the world, according to Forbes. I am not sure about the early years of the TOC, but, in the later years it was not an AMA sanctioned contest (if for no other reason, there was no weight limit on the planes). He put the contest on to showcase the best pilots in the world. It was invitational. The invitations went to those that the TOC committee deemed to be the best. The money he put up as prize money was his, not that of the AMA, as Jim pointed out. I would like to say that he did it as a money making draw for Las Vegas (which was his reasoning to his shareholders), but, in my heart I know he lost money on it every time the TOC was held. He did it all for his love of modeling.

With the level of money that was offered as prizes and the cost of staging the TOC, it is highly unlikely that the event will continue without a large sponsor or group of sponsor's, in it's current form. Certainly, the AMA could not afford to do it.

JR