Warbird, Thanks for the cool photos. I think John also owned a P-51 called Precious Metal.
John had a highly polished Mustang known as "Platinum Plus" and/or "Race 28". It was later sold to Ron Fagen of Granite Falls, MN and has since been known as "Sweet Revenge". Ron eventually put the wing back to stock configuration, eliminating the clipped wing race modification. It still sports the dark smoke canopy, a neat and obvious reminder for us fans of the Race 28 history. It gets flown quite regularly out of Ron's "Fagen Fighters" Museum (one of the best museums in the country) also in Granite Falls, MN.
http://www.fagenfighterswwiimuseum.org/ The old "Precious Metal" P-51 was a different airplane. I forget the original long time owners name (Gary Levitz?) but it's been a racer for
many years. It was most recently flown by Thom Richard who still owns it and the "current" very highly modified version used Rolls-Royce Griffon power with contra-rotating props. The Griffon engine and contra-rotating prop (major) conversion was originally done when it was owned by the Whittington brothers, prior to Thom's ownership. The plane has been down and torn apart for quite some time now after catching fire on the ramp during a refueling stop on it's last journey toward Reno for the races. It's current home base is Thom's "Warbird Adventures" in Kissimmee, Florida where it is
supposedly being rebuilt.