No disrespect intended...but:

[Unregistered]

John Slack

Yes, John Slack was in Reno, I saw his wife and she told me so. John is no longer involved with Team Strega as he did not have any time to devote to the team for the past two years. John is now consulting for the Rare Bear team instead of crewing, helping with systems and powerplant information. John now works for Dwight Thorn during the year and as such a contractor was in Reno with Dwight Thorn, and as a guest of the Candlewood organization therefore John Spent this year at Reno more as a spectator than in any other capacity. John is quite pleased with Mystery Aire having both its engines finish in the Gold, with a first and fifth that certainly points out the NOT RETIRED Dwight Thorn is still at the top of the hill. And it is a steep climb boys, get out your spikes. John was there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. and also is not retired.
John Slack

[Sparrow]

Strega's Engines

Well, I'll tell you this. The engine that we put into Strega was Dan Martin's race engine that I built for him in '98. So, yes it was an engine swap. However, I DID rebuild the top end in the hangar there at Stead after I had made 2 trips to Hollister. 1st trip was to pick up Dan's engine which was known to have a bad piston from the end of the race in 2000. The idea was to make 1 runner out of the 2 engines. We discovered that due to liner damage in both engines, that it could not be done. I took Dan's damaged bank back to my shop in Hollister and we rebuilt the bank over night. We arrived back at Stead the next afternoon at 7:30PM. By 7:00AM Friday morning Terry Tarditi and myself had the engine re-assembled and ready for installation in the airplane. The rest of the group installed the engine. By 7:00 PM that evening (Friday) I lit the engine off and ran it for aprrox 35-40 minutes. It was then returned to the hangar where the group checked everything over and readied it for the next morning's flight. This should clarify any mis information you have rec'd. Sparrow