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  • Reno Friday Comments and Questions

    I spent the entire day, Friday, at Stead, getting there about 6:30am in order to watch Jim Wright's record attempt with the Hughes Racer replica. Unfortunately, RARA didn't see fit to open the gates until their usual 7am opening and by which time a line about a 1/4 mi. long had developed. In addition, Jim started his runs circa 6:45a so most of them were witnessed by empty grandstands. Also, there was no PA in operation so no information on what was being accomplished was presented.

    GriffonGirl tells us that Jim recorded an official 307 mph. This falls short of Howard Hughes record of 352.322. But a seemingly knowledgable person that I overheard, said that Jim had applied for a record attempt for the weight/engine size Class of the H1B with the FAI and that 307 set the record for that class, so he did in fact get a record. Howard Hughes' original record was (allegedly) in the Unlimited class (and thus has been broken many times, including by Rare Bear).

    After the Hughes Racer finished its runs, what appeared to be a Lancair made a series of similar runs. Again, no PA telling us what was going on, but I thought perhaps it was Darryl Greenamyer making a attempt in his weight/engine class. The plane looked great and sounded terrific. So who was it and what speeds were accomplished?

    GG's listing of the race results for Fri. are missing the Sport Class Heat 2A which was truncated due to the Tommy Rose accident. However, John Parker's Thunder Mustang, Blue Bijou, Race 351, had a healthy lead when it was called. I didn't note whether Darryl Greenamyer, Lancair Legacy, Race 33, was in this race. Maybe it suffered some damage in the record runs this morning (if that was Darryl)? I don't know what the Sport Class rules are in a situaion like this, whether they count time and completed laps up to the flag, or whether it becomes a "no-race".

    The last race of the day was Unlimited Heat 2A (also no results posted by GG) in which Skip Holm's P-51 Mustang, Dago Red, Race 4, led from start to finish in impressive fashion. Hand timers in my area were claiming laps in the 460 mph region. Second was Mike Brown's Sea Fury, September Fury, Race 232, and third was Matt Jackson's Mustang, Voodoo, Race 5.

    After Unlimited Heat 2A landed, Rare Bear, F8F Bearcat, Race 77, did an engine run on the ramp. I'm no expert on 3350's but it sounded ragged to me and the left side was showing alot of smoke. Looks like more work is required before a possible flying appearance at Nellis in 3 weeks.

    Work was going on in an adjacent hanger getting a new engine installed in Strega, Race 7. I haven't seen nor heard who the benefactor is who came up with the engine. And I wonder what the sequence will be if they get it running? Will they have to start in the Bronze race and work their way up to the Gold, if they are fast enough? They are missing all the heat races so far.

    CzechMate, Race 86, was not racing. The crew chief says that they had a runaway prop and the engine hit 5000 rpm!!! It still runs OK, but he figures it has damaged valves, stretched rods, et al. Needs a complete teardown and rebuild.

    Critical Mass actually looks pretty good considering its gear collapse. They have the engine off. I assume it needs a thorough checkout for crank damage, etal, as a result of the prop strike.

    Hope the rest of the races are "incident" free.
    Joe

  • #2
    Regarding the missing results. Understandably, results were slow in being posted in the RARA hangar. As of about 7 or 8 PM, there were none. GG decided to eat dinner instead of hanging around waiting for them to be posted. I'm sure, we'll see them as soon as she finds them.. that is, unless she decides to go out and have fun instead of sit at the computer in the hangar..

    Wayne
    Wayne Sagar
    "Pusher of Electrons"

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    • #3
      Follow-up

      According to the Reno Gazette-Journal (RGJ), the Hughes Racer's official record speed was 304.07 mph.

      They also state that the Lancair that I saw run the course after the Hughes Racer was a Legacy, piloted by Rick Schrameck who raced to 345.03 mph and a record in his weight class.

      And to answer my question of what Strega has to do, if it get's into a flyable condition (it has had a runup with the new engine), apparently it will have to run in the Silver Race and finish 1st or 2nd so it can move up to the Gold Race (per StanleyR). Bill Destefani hopes to run it in the Silver Heat today (Sat.), if possible (again according to the RGJ). The engine was loaned to the Strega crew by "fellow racer, Dan Martin" (SGJ).
      Joe

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