BLUE SKIES- CLAY KLABO!

[BuckyD]

WALDO C. 'Clay' KLABO, August 5, 1926 - August 31, 2009

Sad word has come via NAG's Betty Sherman of the recent passing of former Unlimited Class race pilot- Clay Klabo, at age 83. Few details are available yet, other than that Clay (residing in the Las Vegas area), had planned to attend this year's Reno NCAR in September to spectate & enjoy seeing old friends again, but passed-away suddenly just prior to the event. More info will be posted as it comes in.

Clay Klabo raced 1974-1983, flying P-51D Race #85 IRON MISTRESS/Renamed- "FAT CAT" in 1978, competed at Reno, Mojave & Miami. Klabo- a high-time veteran military aviator & United Airlines' Captain, started his racing career using his friend John C. Seidel's Mustang- N311G (P-51D-20-NA #44-72145 / Klabo bought the plane in 1978). He & his wife & team partner-Pam, lived in Pleasanton, Ca. Easy-going & humble in nature, Clay Klabo was a great competitor on the racecourse, and his blue collar (he preferred broken-in soft plaid flannel work shirts) 'no-frills' team-approach to fielding an Unlimited, endeared him to race fans & especially to the everyday average flyer w/a-'Walter Mitty' race pilot fantasy.

Klabo's kind & hard-working nature attracted the good talent necessary to form a cohesive race team & win support, and they employed numerous innovative methods of making a relatively stock P-51D into a potential Gold Trophy racer. A few notes from author/historian- Gary Williams' excellent book- 'Unlimited Class Racing Plane Data' for Klabo's P-51D Race 85-

Fastest Qualification: 1983 Reno - 419.230-mph (6th-place in field)
Fastest Race: 1977 Reno Gold - 407.920-av/mph (4th-place)
Best Gold Finishes: 2nd-place- 1978 Mojave & 1982 Reno

Also notable, is the fact that Clay Klabo/#85 IRON MISTRESS was the fastest-Unlimited qualifier at Reno '77 NCAR @ 402.740-mph.

After retiring from Air Racing, in 1984 Klabo sold his P-51 to Don Whittington, who sold it to Peter McManus of Ft. Lauderdale in 1985. McManus re-registered the Mustang as N51PT & restored it to represent WW2 452nd FG Ace- LtCol. John C. Meyer's 'Petie 3rd' (HO-M). In 2005, current owner- Jeff Pryor of Santa Barbara aquired Clay Klabo's old racing Mustang & his memory lives-on in her today & will hopefully continue to for many more years to come.

For those interested, here's an archived link to Chuck Aro's excellent Pylon1 web article - 'Clay Klabo - A Touch of Class!':

http://www.pylon1.com/rotp/klabo/index.shtml

Lastly, here are a trio of vintage photos presented in memory of Clay Klabo, along w/my poem- 'The Great Airport In The Sky' (L-R):

1. Sun. 9/12/82 - Clay Klabo & #85-'Fat Cat' taxi-in upon arrival at Stead Field for competition at Reno '82 on a beautiful sunny Nevada day.

2. Fri. 9/16/83 - Start of Gold Heat #1 - Old Outer 4 Pylon - L-R, we see quite a formidable herd of Heavy Metal Thoroughbreds jocking for the lead: P-51s- #6 Sumthin' Else-John Crocker, #4 Dago Red-Rick Brickert, #7 Strega-Ron Hevle, Super Sea Fury #8 Dreadnought-Neil Anderson & P-51 #09 Precious Metal-Don Whittington, w/P-51 #85 Fat Cat-Clay Klabo just behind Dreadnought. (Note: Lyle Shelton in his F8F-2 #77 Rare Bear is not in the photo. Dago Red won the race @ 420.226-av/mph, followed by racer #s- 8, 77, 6, & 85. #7 & #09 both mayday'ed on laps 2 & 1, respectively.) This was Klabo & Fat Cat's last Gold event during their last year of racing (-they finished 2nd in Sunday's Silver Race behind Steve Hinton in F2G #1 Bud Light Special, but cutting Pylon 8 on Lap-7 knocked them back to 4th-place).

3. Sat. 9/17/83 - Bronze Heat #2 - Klabo & #85 'Fat Cat' seen turning Outer 4 Pylon, finishing this heat in 3rd-place @ 376.745-av/mph. Note- Fat Cat's luminescent metallic green paint finish evident in the sunlit surfaces.

"BLUE SKIES" - CLAY KLABO!!! On behalf of all of us- BIG THANKS for your service to our country, your friendship & all the great Air Racing Memories you gave us! Here's to you, Clay!!!

DBD

P.S. Site-goers are invited to post any remembrances and/or photos of Clay Klabo & Race #85 onto this tribute thread. I know The Aro Family & Neal Nurmi (a.k.a.- 'Wingman') were friends of Clay & Pam & the team, and took many excellent people & raceplane photos documenting Klabo's racing career & it would be wonderful & fitting to have everyone enjoy them here again, in Clay Klabo's honor & memory. ('PLEASE'!) DBD

[Shawn Aro]

Bucky that Link doesnt work also Don Ryder who recently join Nag was on the crew and knew Clay really well should have some good stories to tell about Clay. Shawn

[Shawn Aro]

Me in 1979 with my Race 85 shirt on, Fat Cat will be a big mem in my life

Shawn

[ShermB]

It did provide another link to try, which worked
Thank you, Bucky, for the lovely tribute.
Good story, C. Aro, and so true. Clay was a classy guy, and will be missed.
Betty

[t-dub]

Thanks Bucky, great tribute. Clay was one of the first unlimited pilots that was one of my favs as a kid, and in later years who could forget Fat Cat's "official" team mascot, none other than Garfield! Great memories of a great pilot, great competitor, and all around great guy. Thank you for all of the great years Mr. Klabo.........Blue skies forever.............

[sierra fox]

Thanks Bucky! Some of my earliest memories of racing include Clay and his machine, great tribute Blue Skies Clay

[taglialavore]

Always it´s a sad news. Blue skies Mr. Klabo
Attached a 1/32 model of Iron Mistress I did in the seventies. Don´t ask me what moved me to make that racer, one thing is for sure, at least at that moment, I liked the paint scheme. Also posted a page from Air Classics note of Mojave 1974.

[wingman]

Reno 1976...

[JCP]

Very sad indeed.....I actually grew up with that Mustang around the corner from our hanger and do believe my first mustang ride was with Mr. Klabo.
Long before I was old enough to be a on a first name bases with my parents friends, the Livermore airport was full of people named "Mr. & Mrs. Klabo, Mr. & Mrs. Camp, Mr. and Mrs. Hovey, Mr. and Mrs. Love and so on.

Blue skies,
JC

[Shawn Aro]

my dad would take us uo to Livermore Thankgiving weekend and the guys would have a fly in of warbirds Clay was one of many to take flybys. Shawn