I have heard about the supergold for years and still don't know what it is. It was in 1994 so that was a couple of years before I started going to the air races. Can anyone explain it, and will it happen again?
Thanks,
Jarrod
Thanks,
Jarrod
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Re: Super Gold ?
Hah, hah, hah, hah.......in this case, I think your ignorance is pure bliss.
The Super Gold Shootout came about after an 'off the record', 'off-hand' remark that Tiger Destefani made to RARA. He said it might be kind of cool if they could get a very large sponsor to put up a lot of money, and let the three fastest racers go at it in a winner-take-all 'trophy dash'.
The key was, there was supposed to be a lot of money, and it's success hinged on it being the three fastest racers....like Strega, the Bear, and whomever happened to be fast back then...which there really was nobody else in the league as those two.
But someone at RARA took the idea and ran with it. The only problem was, they didn't secure that huge pot o' money that was the catalyst. And instead of choosing which three planes would race 'ahead of time', they just took the 'top 3' from Saturday's Gold Heat, and set them into the "Super Gold". It didn't pay any more, and it just bumped the other guys below up a couple notches...hence, this is why Alan Preston in Miss America is 'technically' the winner of the Gold in '94.
The other issue at hand was, as the week played itself out, the hoped for 'contenders' fell by the wayside. Strega had engine problems. Mickey Rupp had a bird-strike and Samurai didn't show that year. Taz was 'disqualified' in "Critical Mass" for passing on the inside at one of the pylons. Dago's engine went sour and ate a piston on Saturday, and was regulated to the regular 'Gold' on Sunday (where he couldn't even keep up with Preston in Miss A.)
So the 'top three' that got bumped up to the Super Gold were the Bear, Dreadnought, and Risky Business. Nothing personal towards the Sanders and Rhino, but that's not a competitive match up. From the very start, it was obvious that it was a 'contrived' race, done to at least 'look close' for the fans. In fact, you could hear the three of them chatting over race frequency about who was going to pass whom and take the lead next.
Wasn't exactly the high point of competition at Reno.
It wasn't very fast. It wasn't "Super". Thank goodness it died a quiet death....
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