These are the main elements of the story on the last day of the 2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race. Zac Majors has been leading the competition going into the last day. He will fly aggressively on the last day as he has all week and not just try to keep over the guys closest to him in the competition.

Here is the start of the task for most pilots at the second start clock (actually at 14:20:05). Zac is the blue arrow at 8,800', I'm the red arrow at 5,400', and standing in for Jonny, Oleg, Kraig and others, is Tyler, the green arrow, at 9,300'. The top finishing pilots all flew together for the most part so Tyler is a good stand in for all of them.

At 14:31 Tyler and Zac make the first turnpoint, a 5 km cylinder around Signal Peak.

Tyler (and friends) is at 8,300', Zac at 7,000'. I'm 5 km behind climbing at 4,600'.

At 14:45:37, 25 minutes after the start at 14:20, Zac finds a strong thermal averaging 590 fpm, just north of Casa Grande Mountain and just south of the I8 freeway. He is three kilometers ahead of Tyler (and friends) at 5,900'. Tyler is at 6,800' and I'm 9 kilometers behind Zac at 5,100'.

Tyler (and friends) misses the lift as he passes right under Zac at 5,800' while Zac is 7,700' and climbing. Zac climbs to 8,300' before heading south for the mountain. Meanwhile Tyler has reached the north end of the mountain at 5,300'

At 14:53:33 Tyler finds 225 fpm at 4,200' over the mountain as Zac passes over him without stopping at 7,200'.

At 15:05:57 Zac continues south until he finds 285 fpm at 2,400' (1,000' AGL). He is 8 kilometers ahead of Tyler who is thermaling at 140 fpm at the south end of the mountain at 5,200'. I'm just getting to the north end of the mountain at 5,400', 5 kilometers north of Tyler, after thermaling up at 300 fpm near where Zac got up north of the mountain. I will soon find strong lift half way down the ridge line.

At 15:17:40 Zac finds 485 fpm at 3,300'. I've climbed to 9,300' and am heading south toward the Sunland turnpoint. Tyler is heading south just north of Arizona City at 4,900'.

At 15:23:45 as Zac climbs up just 2.4 kilometers north of the Sunland turnpoint, Tyler and about four others get stuck at a little over 4,000' over Arizona City as I fly over them at 6,700'.

At 15:29 Zac climbs to 6,800' and then takes the Sunland turnpoint along with Greg Kendall who started 20 minutes earlier. I'm a little less than 3 kilometers behind but down to 4,300'. Tyler is still over Arizona City at 5,900'.

At 15:41:26 Tyler and a little later Jonny finds 400 fpm from 6,600'. Jonny finds 600 fpm just to Tyler's (and friends) west. I'm stuck north of the turnpoint searching for better lift which I'll find in a few minutes. Zac is turning in 180 fpm at 4,200' and is 15 kilometers ahead of Tyler 11 kilometers up the last leg.

Tyler climbs to 10,200' by 15:50:50. At 3,500' I find 360 fpm one kilometer south of Tyler. Zac is 20 kilometers ahead of Tyler but at 3,100' climbing at 70 fpm.

Given their extraordinary altitude Tyler and friends go on final glide from 30 kilometers out. Only Kraig has to take a few more turns up the final leg. Zac doesn't get up and lands 7 kilometers short of goal. I thermal up to 8,200' but that is not enough to make it to goal as I headed north (not north northwest toward goal) to get up over the mountain again but don't climb to an adequate height to make it in as the lift is much weaker than when I got to the mountain heading south.