Picture window: What you are seeing here is one of the main bearing caps on Dago Red's race engine... visible, but out of focus on the left is the jagged edge of the huge hole in the Merlin engine oil pan. This is not a good thing!

The crew was upbeat on Monday when we took this last series of pictures; Crew Chief, Bill Kerchenfaut, saying that he was happy that the engine picked when it did to fail. One lap earlier and they might have lost the race, possibly the airplane... One lap later and they might have lost the engine on the ferry flight to home base.

As it was, the engine let go under normal take off power. (around 60" of manifold pressure) Had the engine gone south at full race power, the outcome of this connecting rod failure would likely have been much much worse.

Despite the problems encountered in the 500mph attempt, we congratulate the entire Dago Red Air Race Team for their third Reno National Championship Air Race win in as many years! Will they continue to dominate this class? Stay tuned.. R2K+1 is only 11 or so months away and the Gold Cup will be hotly contested.... next time at Reno!