present to make it official. Laura Ingalls later raised her loop record to 980. On 22 June 1931, before more than 50,000 spectators (and NAA officials), Florence took off from Wold Chamberlain Field at Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four and one-half hours later she landed, "A trifle groggy and gagged by gas fumes," with a verified record of 1,078 loops. At the 1931 National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio she won four woman-only events and claimed $4,200 in prize money. At the 1932 Nationals she won the most coveted prize in women's aviation, the Amelia Earhart Trophy, presented by Amelia Earhart herself and winning the grand prize of an Essex Terraplane automobile. In 1932, she came second in the Shell Speed Dash, in a Monocoupe. 1933 International Air Races In 1933 Florence was the first woman to enter the $10,000 Frank Phillips Trophy Race at the International Air Races in Chicago, Illinois. The Phillips was a , 12 lap pylons race and was open to planes with no limits on engine size. This race was the main event at the Nationals that year. Florence flew a bright red Gee Bee Model Y Senior Sportster NR718Y, owned by Arthur Knapp of Jackson, Michigan. The fabric-covered craft's original 220 horsepower (164 kW) Lycoming R-680 engine had been replaced with a 670 hp (500 kW) Wright Whirlwind. Late in the afternoon of September 4, one day after her 29th birthday, Florence was flying in fourth place ahead of four male fliers, averaging over through the first eight laps. Then, just as she was passing the grand stands, a bit of red fabric fluttered down from the fuselage. The stresses of the race were apparently too much for the overpowered light craft. Florence immediately veered off the course and flew steady and level straight south to a plowed field a couple of miles away in Northfield Township. Suddenly the plane nosed over into the ground from about up. Florence died instantly. Apparently she had attempted to bail out. Her parachute was found tangled in the fuselage. Organizers used her death as an excuse to bar women from the Air Races. Florence's body was shipped back to Minnesota for the funeral. The businessmen who had bankrolled Florence's first plane served as pallbearers and her funeral was held in the First Presbyterian Church of Fargo. She was interred in the Gunderson family lot in Oak Mound Cemetery, Kragnes