Bob Pond commissioned the design with the idea of developing a modern aircraft that could compete with the vintage warbirds in the Unlimited Class at the Reno air races.

Bob Pond was concerned that each year at the Reno Air Races, valuable and historic aircraft were being crashed and destroyed, not to mention many engines being damaged or wrecked beyond repair.

The Pond Racer was hoped to be an alternative to vintage aircraft like the P-51 Mustang and the Hawker Sea Fury that would be as fast and spectacular in the air as the warbirds.

The aircraft made its debut at the 1991 Reno air races having been flown from the Scaled Composites factory under escort.

The aircraft was entered in the Silver class and qualified at 400 mph (640 km/h), flown by experienced test pilot Rick Brickert.

In fact, a vibrator was still attached to the left vertical stabilizer to initiate flutter as part of the planned flight test program.

Eventually it was determined that the oil drain holes were undersized in the rocker area of the heads as they were not intended to run at a constant high RPM in an automobile application.

During qualifying, the aircraft began leaking oil and suffered an engine failure leaving the right propeller unfeathered.