The World Comes to Albuquerque

One of the participants in that first race, Don Kerston, then President of the Balloon Federation of America, had just returned from Paris where he had been sanctioned the authority to hold the First World Hot Air Balloon Championships somewhere in the United States the next year.

After his experience in Albuquerque, and some serious lobbying by Cutter and company, Albuquerque was chosen as the sight and preparations quickly got underway. Sid Cutter and Tom Rutherford formed World Balloon Championships, Inc. and took on the task of hosting this first ever event.

Many accolades have been showered upon Sid Cutter over the years, but the most repeated, the most universally acknowledged is that he only knows how to do things one way -- First Class. Although World Balloon Championships, Inc. was formed as a profit making entity, it quickly became clear to Sid that profits, if any, would be a long time in coming. But his word was his bond, and his financial concerns did not deter him from putting on Albuquerque's first World Class event in world class style.