Hi Matt,
Great race. I was lucky enough to go for Friday through Sunday and the Unlimited action was fast and very dramatic. There were so many competitive airplanes that it made witnessing the action fun.
Rare Bear had a new engine that was a last minute replacement which was a mostly stock power and blower section with their trademark "slow nosecase" prop reduction gearbox replacing the usual faster geared one. This engine wa way down on power compared to their full race engines and the teams new liquid boiler oil cooling system reduced the drag enough for them to run competitively even with a 600 to 700 hp defecit. They "broke in" the engine through the week, with test flights and race heats showing incrimental speed improvements showing their increasing the power as the week progressed.
Strega had a super hot Mike Nixon racing Merlin with all the trick set-up running as well as ever. Stevo Hinton put the airplane where he wanted it (except for one pylon cut on Saturday that put Voodoo's 486mph heat speed on the pole for Sunday's Gold) and showed that he could win if the engine held.
Voodoo had an engine by a guy they nicknamed Earl, it was his first all out race Merlin and was done in long time Merlin builder Jack Hovey's shop. Will Witeside is the new pilot and he did a fine job keeping out of trouble at speeds as fast as Strega, when necessary.
Dan Martin's Ridge Runner III looks stock in the off season, but it had a lot of full race streamlining features that are invisible plus the clipped wings and Dago red type scoop and doghouse along with the full race Mike Barrow Merlin. They had a problem with too tight clearances on the piston pins causing a failure of the tops and skirts, one was real bad and all the rest were following it. Mike took the removed heads and banks back to his shop, put a new liner in one, honed all the rest and replaced all of the piston rings in last years pistons and pins, then drove back to Reno where the crew reassembled the engine and ran a 477mph average on Saturday's exciting heat.
The Moore's Czech Mate Yak runs a Pratt&Whitney R-2800 that is said to be a CB-3 low altitude airliner engine but with a lot of hybriding to select the best parts for the 5000 foot elevation course at Reno. They were timed doing 470+ laps and were beating the heck out of theSuper Sea Fury Dreadnought.
This sets the stage for Sunday's start, which was a mini race in itself. Even more than usual. Here the start was a picture perfect release as the T-33 pace plane pulled off earlty enough to let the racers have their full head. The pole sitter Voodoo was wings level, shallow dive for pylon 4, way at the back of the course. Strega was outside and they were wingtip to wingtip in a drag race that was about 5 miles long to that first turn where the airplanes are very small.
I knew whoever came out ahead in the turn would be the winner. Will held his line and told a good friend of mine that Stevo pinched him into the turn and cut him off. Strega was ahead by about a half a length when they were seen banking onto the back of the course, and that was it. He held the lead and kept it wicked up for several laps doing three at over 500 mph.
Rare Bear ran up and past RRIII on the drag race, and closed 3/4 of a mile of the leaders on the start, but even though he was able to hold this interval John Penney couldn't gain any more ground and was treated with one lap at 499 mph.
Voodoo ran close to Strega but didn't have the power that Strega was running, or chose to hold off til later! Will flew well, but encountered wake at least twice following the leader that caused him to roll and correct to re-establich himself on the course and in doing so lost a bit of ground. inally he had an engine problem that forced him to mayday out on lap 6. Too bad, it was a valiant effort and really showed what the pilot and crew can do with this racer when a fine racing mill is running well.
The Yak passed RRIII in some of the best racing seen, as well as Matt Jackson flying a low groove, tight line in Dreadnought that had it going as fast as 460mph. This on a borrowed engine pulling enough power to stay in the hunt, yet fly it home on Monday.
Fury and Riff Raff were racing for a while but Riff raff was using a lot of power and Hoot Gibson knows his way around the course and traffic.
Howard pardue flew his retirement race in his super fast, stock XF8F-1 at a speed that looked like he was standing still but he was running 400mph laps!
So it was a pretty good, record Sunday Gold race speed. They were good, but they didn't break any Dago Red records so next year, LOOK OUT! Go Dago Red!!!
Chris...
Topic: Reno Air Races (Read 1951 times)