-
-
Re: RGJ 9/13
Thanks for the link. cool article.
-
Re: RGJ 9/13
For some reason, that RGJ article would only open the first page on their site. With many thanks to the reporter, Guy Clifton, here's the text. (Remember that this is the Gazette-Journal's material and is for information purposes only)
Racers take to the skies for 47th year of National Championship Air Races
By Guy Clifton gclifton@rgj.com
The Reno National Championship Air Races and Air Show takes off on its 47th year on Wednesday at Reno Stead Airfield with some new faces, wide-open competition and plenty of questions to be answered.
First and foremost is whether 23-year-old Steven Hinton, who last year became the youngest pilot to ever win the Unlimited Gold race by piloting the P-51D Mustang Strega to victory, can do it again.
Or could Rare Bear, with a new engine and five-time Unlimited Gold-winning pilot John Penney at the stick, reclaim the title for the first time since 2007?
In the Jet Class, can two-time defending champion Curt Brown eclipse his record speed of 538 mph, which he accomplished last year?
Or can Tom Aberle, a veteran who has competed at the Air Races since their debut in 1964, break the speed record for a biplane and win a third consecutive title in that class?
The answer, in a nutshell, is wait and watch.
Those questions will be answered 50 feet above the ground in the days ahead. You never know what teams have come up with in the past year.
“Racers tend to keep things pretty close to their vest, particularly if they’re going to come with more speed,” said Phil Fogg, president of the Jet Class.
This year’s air show will feature the Canadian Snowbirds, the Canadain Air Force’s flight demonstration team, along with aerobatic pilots Michael Goulian, David Martin, Greg Poe and Kent Peitsch.
This year’s races will also feature a historical reunion of Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft. Fans and enthusiasts will be able to see the P-38s up close as they sit on static display during the event. “This is the largest gathering of P-38 aircraft since World War II and it’s happening right here in Reno,” said Reno Air Racing Association president and CEO Mike Houghton.
Here is a look at all the racing classes at this year’s National Championship Air Races:
Unlimited
Steven Hinton made history last year when he piloted the P-51D Mustang No. 7 Strega to victory in the Unlimited Gold race, becoming, at 22, the youngest winning pilot in the 46-year history of the National Championship Air Races.
Hinton, a second-generation air racer, is back. While the obvious question is can he repeat, perhaps the more appropriate question is can anyone step up and challenge him?
“It’s going to be very difficult (to beat him),” said Bill Harrison, president of the Unlimited Class. “They’ve got a very good airplane that is well-proven, a really good crew chief and a young man who flies as well as anyone I’ve seen. That’s a tough combination. If (the plane) doesn’t break, they’re certainly the one to beat.”
Hinton’s victory in Strega was the eighth Unlimited Gold title for the plane. It’s owner, Bill “Tiger” Destefani, won seven titles, including in 2008 before retiring and handing the pilot seat to Hinton.
The most likely challenger — and arguably the most popular plane at the Air Races — is Rare Bear, the Gruman F8F Bearcat No. 77 flown by John Penney, a four-time Unlimited Gold pilot, who finished second to Hinton in last year’s gold race.
“Rare Bear has a new engine and they’re always in the running,” Harrison said. “I know they’ve put time on that engine. They won’t know how good it is until they can really get out and go.
” Will Whiteside will be back to challenge the field with his P-51D Mustang, Voodoo. Whiteside started on the pole in the Unlimited Gold race last year, but had to mayday out of the race when the plane had mechanical difficulties.
With all the planes flying at high speeds and RPMs, mechanical difficulties are always a possibility, Harrison said.
He pointed to Matt Jackson in the Hawker Sea Fury No. 8 Dreadnought as a pilot who could take advantage if other teams start breaking.
“They’re always competitive,” Harrison said. “Dreadnought is like the tortise and the hare. They’re in the wings if somebody breaks."
Another potential challenger is veteran Jimmy Leeward, who will be racing his modified P-51 Mustang No. 177 Galloping Ghost at the Reno Air Races for the first time in more than 20 years.
“He’s been flying it quite a bit and he feels good about it,” Harrison said. “Jimmy’s a good pilot, so you never know.”
Jet Class
Last year, former NASA astronaut Curt Brown flew his L-29 jet, Viper, on a qualifying lap of 538.052 mph — the fastest time of any plane in the history of the National Championship Air Races.
This year, the question is will that record be broken, and which pilot in the Jet Class has the best opportunity to break it? “
If anybody beats it, I suspect it will be him in the same airplane,” said Phil Fogg, Jet Class president.
After all, Brown, who flew six missions into space during his time with NASA’s shuttle program, has dominated the jet class the last two years and has won the class four times in its 10-year history. But whether Brown, or any of the record number of entrants in the Jet Class this year can top 538 mph, remains to be seen. At least a couple of them might have the chance.
“Mike Mangold in his L29 Viper (Euro Burner), a very similar airplane to Viper, is capable and Mike is certainly a capable pilot,” Fogg said.
“Whether whether he’s found enough changes and found that much speed, I don’t know.”
Pip Squeak, which will be piloted by Joe Gano, is another unknown.
“Pip Squeak has got a big motor and I guess it could surprise us as well,” Fogg said.
This year, the Jet Class with have 16 racers, allowing it to add a Silver Race on championship Sunday for the first time.
“We had nine rookies at rookie school this year,” Fogg said. “We’re seeing more and more interest in the Jet Class.”
One of those rookies is Heather Penney, the daughter of Rare Bear pilot John Penney. She will be flying the L-29 jet, Raju Grace.
T-6
In the evenly matched world of T-6 racing, Nick Macy has distinguished himself for much of the past decade.
Flying the No. 6 Six Cat, Macy, a University of Nevada, Reno graduate who now lives in Tulelake, Calif., captured his fifth T-6 Gold title last year to cap a dominating week.
Macy was fastest during qualifying runs and won both gold heat races in Six-Cat before winning the Gold Race on Championship Sunday. Whether he will have a similarly dominating week this year remains to be seen, but he’s the favorite in 2010.
“I think everybody is chasing Nick Macy,” said T-6 Class President Fred Telling. “I think Dennis Buehn is hoping to have another swing at him, though. We’ll have to see.”
Buehn, of Carson City, won the T-6 Gold in 2007 and his plane, Midnight Miss III should challenge again this year.
Because the planes in the class are so similar, passing is very difficult and any pilot error or mechanical glitch can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
“It’s very hard to pass someone in this class, but if you have a mistake, you leave the barn door open for somebody to get by you,” Telling said.
Super Sport
For the first time since the Super Sport Class was introduced at the National Championship Air Races in 2007, there will be a different champion.
John Sharp, who has dominated the class in his plane, Nemesis, is not participating in this year’s races, setting up a wide-open battle for the gold championship.
“The void is going to have to get filled up pretty fast,” said Lee Behel, pilot and Sport Class president. “This could be a tremendous race. There are three guys that are really going to be closely matched. That’s not to say there aren’t others, but they’ve demonstrated in the past that they are extremely fast.”
Behel said Kevin Eldredge in the NXT No. 42 Relentless, George Giboney in the Thunder Mustang No. 75 Rapid Travel and Mike Dacey in the Questair Venture No. 71 Bad Intentions are all likely to contend for the title.
“While those guys haven’t broken 400 (mph for a full race), they have all nudged it at one time or another in their races,” Behel said. “They’ve had a lap or two over 400 during a race. It shows they have the potential to do it.”
Sharp, of Mojave, Calif., flew to a class-record 412.554 mph in qualifying last year and easily cruised to the victory in the gold race on championship Sunday.
“He’s set all the records in the Super Sport,” Behel said. “By that very nature, he is the standard that everybody measures himself against.”
Behel, meanwhile, will be flying the GP-5 No. 15 Sweet Dreams, an airplane powered by a Chevrolet V8 engine. It will be the first year the plane has been flown at the National Championship Air Races.
“It’s a very cool airplane,” said Behel, a University of Nevada graduate and former Nevada Air Guard pilot. “It is not going to threaten anybody at the top of the class, but this is going to be the first year out and we can build from there.”
Sport
David Sterling of San Diego won the gold race going away last year in his Lancair Legacy No. 8, finishing nearly 12 seconds ahead of second-place Tom McReynolds of Palo Alto, Calif.
Sterling is back to defend his title, but he should have some tight competition as well. Behel said Jeff LaVelle, flying his Glasair III No. 39, should be challenge Sterling if he can avoid the bad luck that has bitten him in Reno in the past.
“Jeff has not had good results out there in the past, but it’s not because his airplane isn’t really fast,” said Behel, who won the Sport Class gold race in 2008. “He has a very, very fast airplane. Dave Sterling won the class last year. The two of them should be just extremely fast and they should also be very closely matched. It should be a very good race to watch.”
Biplane
Tom Aberle has some milestones to chase at this year’s National Championship Air Races and that could mean bad news for his fellow competitors in the Biplane Class.
Aberle, a six-time champion and the two-time defending champion, had barely clinched the Biplane Gold title with his plane, Phantom, last year when he was already looking ahead to 2010.
“I haven’t had three in a row yet, so that’s what we’re after for next year,” he said.
Biplane Class
President Jeff Watkins said Aberle has another goal for this year as well. “
He wants to get up to the all-time (speed) record (for the Biplane Class),” Watkins said. “He wants to shoot for 262 mph. That would actually be the all-time speed for Biplane and Formula One. The last few years, we’ve been faster than the formulas, and faster than (the) T-6 (Class).
Aberle, who won his first Reno title in 1987 and also won the Biplane Gold in 1989, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009, will likely be challenged by Jeff Lo in Miss Giana.
“They both have purpose-built planes and they’re the top of our gold class,” Watkins said.
Norm Way in Magic and Karl Grove in Drag Racer are also fliers to watch during this year’s races.
Formula One
A new champion will be crowned in the Formula One Class this year as last year’s champion, Thom Richard of Kissimmee, Fla., will be racing in the Jet Class this year. His absence is just one of several changes in the Formula One field that is setting the stage for a wide-open year.
“I think this year is going to be real interesting,” said Smokey Young, Formula One Class president. “Last year’s top four airplanes have either changed owners, changed drivers or won’t be here.”
The plane Richard flew to victory last year, Invictus, is back with rookie air race pilot Vito Wypraechtiger from Austria in the pilot’s seat.
“Although he’s a very good pilot, traditionally, there’s a little bit of a dropoff when there’s a rookie pilot,” Young said.
Steve Senegal, the 2008 gold champion in Formula One is back this year after mechanical problems forced him to declare a mayday in last year’s gold race. He’ll be racing Endeavor.
Young said Steve Temple in Madness and Lachlan Onslow in Outrageous should also be top contenders.Comment
Comment