More shots from 1971

[drmull]

Here are some more pics from the 1971 St. Louis races. Any plane/pilot ID's appreciated - with the exception of Miss Merced, of course!

[RandyGoss75]

Re: More shots from 1971

Top is Dick Foote's "Tokefogo" http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51re...1-4474008.html
Now regsistered as N510TT "Comfortably Numb" owned by my friend Terry Tarditi of Lodi, California

Then Leroy Penhall's #81 http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/p51who/85.shtml


And Dr. Burns Byrums #71 http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/p51who/331.shtml

[drmull]

Re: More shots from 1971

Thanks, Randy - I knew Penhall's plane but not the other two. I like the paint scheme and non-polished look it has today.

[drmull]

Re: More shots from 1971

Randy - Are you sure about "Tokefogo"? MustangsMustangs.net shows the current "Comfortably Numb" as returning to the USA from Indonesia in 1979 and becoming "China Doll" in 1984. It couldn't have been racing in 1971. Hmmm...

[RandyGoss75]

Re: More shots from 1971

Another explanation: http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=401782

http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/survivors/pages/44-73339.shtml

So many Mustangs have several different S/N and ID's like this:
44-73339
44-74008a

I do know that is a picture of "Tokefogo"

[Apteryx]

Re: More shots from 1971

...I do know that is a picture of "Tokefogo"

Ditto that.
Reg. (was) N8676E if you trying to track it down, but I don't think that will lead anywhere now.

Paul

[MRussell]

Re: More shots from 1971

What's the story of Miss Merced?

[speeddemon]

Re: More shots from 1971

What's the story of Miss Merced?

Do you mean it's history?

[MRussell]

Re: More shots from 1971

Sure.

[speeddemon]

Miss Merced history

Miss Merced was purchased by Mike Carroll, owner of the Signal Trucking Company of Long Beach, California in 1965. It was Canadian registration, painted in a lovely red and gold scheme. But Mike wanted to modify it for air racing.

Mike was not really interested in the pylon racing aspect of it, so he had Vern Baker's Pylon Air make it a wet-wing, clipped-wing, small canopied cross-country racer. It was given the wild flame paint job, and 'debuted' in 1966. It was known as the "Signal Sea Fury".

But in 1966, RARA didn't HAVE a x-country race, so Mike, E.D. Weiner, and Dick Kestle had something of a 'skins match' where they each put up some money, and raced from Cleveland (I think) to Palm Springs. But Lyle Shelton made an agreement with Carroll to race #87 in the pylon races that year. That was back when the race course was a 10 mile oval, with 180 degree turns at each end...and the clipped wing Sea Fury just didn't do well on a course like that. Lyle finished second in the consolation race.

Mike Carroll won the 1967 Harolds Club Transcon race in the Sea Fury (which is what prompted E.D. Weiner to further modify HIS x-country Mustang, #14...resulting in that cool low-profile canopy in '68.)

Mike had decided he wanted to pylon race as well, so he purchased and modified the old Cobra II P-39. In August of 1968 he was killed on the first test-flight.

The Sea Fury was purchased in 1969 from the Carroll estate by Sherm Cooper, a dentist from Merced, CA. He renamed the Fury "Miss Merced", and debuted at Reno 1970. They still had the 'oval' race course, so the plane was hampered. But if memory serves, he won the Consolation race. A month later, they ran the California 1000 at Mojave. Since the plane had been modified as a cross-country racer, and had huge internal fuel capacity, it flew the race non-stop and won--six laps ahead of the second place finisher.

In 1971, Sherm brought Miss Merced to the U.S. Cup race in San Diego. This was a 1000 KM race (as opposed to the 1000 mile race at Mojave the year before), and it included mandatory pit stops--which somewhat negated Miss Merced's advantage in the distance races. However, due to a fuel miscalculation by Dave Zeuschel/Darryl Greenamyer, and a blown engine by Bob Love, Miss Merced 'inherited' the lead with about 10 laps to go, and won his second consecutive distance race.

Sherm gave the racer an 'updated', slightly changed paint job, and took it to Reno in September. There, in one of the classic races of all time (in some ways, better than the '91 Gold Race), he took third place behind Greenamyer and Shelton, and just ahead of Gunther Balz. All four top finishers finished within seconds of each other. But there was a price to pay. It was the fastest speed ever run by a Sea Fury, and the Centaurus got 'worn out'. When he brought it to the '71 California 1000, Cooper had the engine fail on his qualifying attempt. The course at Mojave was 15 miles long, and the failure occurred at the farthest point from the airport. He had to land the plane gear up out in the sage brush, and it tore the fuselage of the plane up pretty bad aft of the cockpit.

The plan was to rebuild the plane with an R-4360 (an idea from the Crew Chief...a young whipper-snapper named Bill Kerchenfaut)...but Cooper was killed in 1972 when the top wing separated in flight on his Pitts Special.

The Sanders family bought the wreckage and put it in storage for many years. I can remember seeing the clipped wing panels off of Miss Merced hanging in the Sanders hanger at Chino many years ago. The eventual plan was to use them on Dreadnought...but Bruce Boland put the kaibosh on that, and instead, the wingtips were used on Blind Man's Bluff--now Critical Mass.

The fuselage and main wing section of Miss Merced was eventually bought and rebuilt by Klairs Aviation in Rialto, CA for T-6 racer Jim Mott. It was given a 'stock' wing, and converted to a two-place cockpit. A radial from a Bristol Blackburn was put in (apparently, larger than a Centaurus) and a four bladed prop put on. It was called #42 Super Chief. But the plane never really ran. Blown engines kept it out of competition in '88 and '89, and in '90 he nosed over on an aborted take-off...but managed to finish in Sunday's Bronze race. I think he raced it until '92 or '93 without much success, and then retired.

Jim Michaels and Steve Bolander bought the plane in '99 and took it to the Sanders to be completely re-done. Gave it a -3350, and a 'retro' Miss Merced paint scheme. They brought it to Reno 2000 and it ran respecfully...but later that year, Bolander had a stroke, and Michaels ended up selling the plane.

I honestly can't remember who the new owner is...someone in Wisconson. The claim has been made that they want to go racing with it...but...we'll see.....

[Chad Veich]

Re: More shots from 1971

I watched Mott's aborted take-off at Reno '90 in "Super Chief". I had no idea the airplane did not have a 3350 in it at that point. Interesting stuff, thanks.

[Uh-sure]

Re: More shots from 1971

The interesting stuff was the way the prop was ramp fixed-
The other blades were rough profiled to match the damaged blade-
Grind and go....

[speeddemon]

Re: More shots from 1971

The interesting stuff was the way the prop was ramp fixed-
The other blades were rough profiled to match the damaged blade-
Grind and go....

Kinda like the year Art Scholl broke part of a blade on the Super Chimpmunk. Just took a hack-saw, roughed out the length of the broken part, and sawed the same off the other blade....and flew her home.

[Unregistered]

Re: More shots from 1971

I've got the aborted takeoff on videotape (the result of taping EVERYTHING in those times) and looks like he barely got it stopped before running out of room, tho at that point he was'nt moving very fast.

[stuntflyr]

Re: More shots from 1971

I'm only familiar with the Penhall airplane when it was a glossy 6 inch deep yellow and orange, like a 72 Ranchero paint scheme.
What does it look like today?
Chris...

Thanks, Randy - I knew Penhall's plane but not the other two. I like the paint scheme and non-polished look it has today.