Miranda Pederson/Daily NewsJoey Powell of Bowling Green times planes as they fly-by Wednesday at the BG-WC Regional Airport during the Air Race Classic from Oklahoma City to Canada.

Forty-six teams of women pilots stopped Wednesday at the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport, the halfway point in a scenic route of the nation’s countryside.

The 31st annual Air Race Classic is an all-woman, transcontinental race that is best known for being the same race famous aviator Amelia Earhart flew in the 1920s as part of a group of 20 female pilots known as the &#8220Powder Puff Derby.”

The race began in Oklahoma City, Okla., on Tuesday and will end in Saint John, Canada, today.

The 1929 race, called the Women’s Air Derby, started because women were not allowed to compete in a similar race for men, the Cleveland Air Race. For publicity reasons, the 20 women pilots decided to have the end of their race coincide with the start of the men’s race, according to Margie Richison, chairman of the board of trustees for the Oklahoma-City based Museum of Women Pilots.

Wednesday marked the first time the Air Race Classic has stopped in Bowling Green and the most recent time the race has touched down in Kentucky in more than a decade, according to airport manager Rob Barnett.

Flying in a Grumman AA5B plane, Northwest Airlines pilots Anne Edmonson and Charlene Olsen said it was their first time flying the race.

&#8220This looked like a great part of the country to go through, and you gotta check some boxes in life and this is definitely one of the things we’re really glad we did,” Edmonson said, who lives in Tygh Valley, Ore.

Edmonson, who has more than 12,000 hours flying since 1990, picked up Olsen for the race in La Veta, Colo., where she lives.

Olsen, who has more than 9,000 hours in a career that includes flying night freight, aerial firefighting and corporate flying, said she believes it would have been a great time to have flown with the original Powder Puff ladies.

Barnett says the race presents a great opportunity to show the city’s appeal.

&#8220But this event in particular has a lot of ladies that are very experienced pilots and exposure to our community is very important,” Barnett said. &#8220More importantly, we hope they return in the future to Bowling Green, visit our airport and visit our community.”

After leaving Bowling Green, Edmonson and Olsen said they will face the stiff head winds of Lewisburg, W.Va., and Elmira, N.Y.

&#8220We try to avoid the head winds and maximize the tail winds,” Edmonson said.

– The Associated Press contributed information to this story.