Amid all the festivities it was easy to forget the real reason for all of it &045; the race. But for the pilots and crew of the 72 balloons that participated in this weekend’s festivities, getting up in the air was all that mattered. The weather complied, giving two days of clear, relatively calm conditions for ballooning.

&uot;This is great. Anytime you get to fly it’s a great event,&uot; Bill Cunningham, events director, said. &uot;We had a real good race, competitive-wise, with a lot of balloons.&uot;

The 72 balloons that competed in the race were the most ever, more than the approximately 60 balloons that usually come each year.

In the competition, balloonists are given coordinates of a target they must attempt to go to and on which they must drop a small marker (usually a beanbag). The closer the beanbag, the higher the score. Balloonists may take off from any place that is at least a specified distance (one mile for this competition) away from the target.

That means the pilots have to determine what direction the wind is going so they can go upwind of the target and find a field large enough to launch.

And having a good place to land at the end of the flight is a major concern as well. No one wants to be forced to land in a rough patch and potentially damage the balloon.

Given the large distances involved and the inexact science of attempting to control a large balloon’s direction and altitude, one might expect even getting close to the target to be a long shot, but competitions are often decided by a matter of a few inches.

This weekend, Gary Jones proved to be the best at dropping his markers on those targets, scoring more than 900 points on each of the three objectives.

Jones, a resident of Diamondhead, won the competition with a score of 2,887.

&uot;I was going to buy a lottery ticket on the way home, but I think I’ve used up all my luck,&uot; Jones said.

Just 35 points (out of a possible total of 3,000) separated the top three finishers in the final standings. Will Lapointe, of Oklahoma, and Chuck Rohr of Louisiana rounded out the top three in the standings. The next six finishers were all from Texas.

Jones attributed his win to good luck in finding air currents and targets.

&uot;I got pretty lucky. I used luck and patience and just watching what other balloons did in front of me,&uot; Jones said. &uot;Luck has a lot to do with it and maybe a little skill too.&uot;

Perhaps the most thrilling event of the weekend was the barge drop, in which balloonists had to attempt to drop a beanbag on a barge in the river. Only a handful of balloonists even attempted the difficult feat. A strong northerly win pushed those who did try straight upriver, making finding a landing place an arduous task.

Brian Rohr was one of only two pilot who managed to succeed in getting a beanbag on the target barge. But Bert Carollo, the other pilot, accidentally dropped his basket into the water, a violation of the rules that resulted in a 25-foot penalty, meaning his beanbag was not scored as having hit the barge.

&uot;It’s tough to hit a moving target. We just got a good wind in and managed to hit it,&uot; Brian Rohr said.