Reno Air Races...

For more information on the Reno Air races visit Reno Air Racing Association web site.

Some great footage of the Reno Air Races can also be found on the "Youtube" site follow this link or paste it into your browser. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAgJuwSdAgE

2006 Reno Air Races.

Another year of thrills and spills at the 43rd Annual Reno Championship Air Races with several spectacular engine 'blow-ups' and drama's. Last years winner "Rare Bear" being the most prominent going out to engine troubles and a number of Merlin engined racers breaking down.

John Parker in the Thunder Mustang set a new Reno record in the Saturday race with an average speed of 370mph (and an unofficial fastest lap of 378mph). Previous Sports class winner Darryl Greenamyer wasn’t flying his twin turbo-charged Lancair Legacy this year but his aircraft was there and being flown by pilot Rod van Grote. 

On race day Rod van Grote led from the start in the Lancair legacy closely followed by John Parker in the Thunder Mustang. Not known to most on the ground Race 33 had cut a pylon invoking a 2 second/lap penalty (a total of 12 seconds for the race) which should have comfortably given Blue Thunder the win but on the 4th lap catastrophe for John Parker with a supercharger belt breaking. John was able to continue but with only 20" of manifold pressure! First across the line was Rod van Grote in the Lancair Legacy but the cut pylon gave the race win to Jon Sharp in the Nemesis NXT.

Final results for the Sports Gold race, first was John Sharp (Nemesis NXT) with a speed of 360.389mph, second was Rod van Grote (Race 33, Lancair Legacy) with a speed of 358.557mph and in third place John Parker (Thunder Mustang, Blue Thunder) at 350.34mph. (20mph less than he achieved in the Saturday race).

So disappointment for all of us Thunder Mustang fans, but the fact that Blue Thunder was 20mph faster in the Saturday race gives great hope of a Thunder Mustang win in 2007. And I guess thats what keeps dragging us back.

Tom Aberle won the Bi-plane Gold race flying a Mong Sport taking Gold with an average speed of 251.95mph winning his forth title. Second was Jeffrey Lo in a Pitts LR-1 (231.68mph). After that it was Pitts S1’s all the way down.

Formula 1 Gold was won by Gary Hubler (for his fifth straight F1 title) flying a Cassutt III M with a average speed of 257mph closely followed by David Hoover in his Arnold AR6 (254.58mph). 

Possibly the most competitive class (as all of the aeroplanes are essentially unmodified) is the Harvard or T6 races with approximately 20mph between the fastest and slowest. The T6 Gold race was won by Nick Macy flying ‘Six Cat’with a winning speed of 235.6 mph.

The Unlimited Gold race saw Tiger Destefani’s modified P51 “Strega” race from the back of the field to second place only to drop out with engine trouble. Final results for the Unlimited Gold race was first place going to Mike Brown flying the Hawker Sea Fury “September Fury” with a wining speed of 481.619mph. Second was Matt Jackson in the Hawker Sea Fury “Dreadnought” (453.559mph) and third was Sherman Smoot flying the Yak 11 “Czech mate” (445.817mph).

I have written a more in-depth article for Pacific Wings magazine so watch out for that and get your copy.

Chris

The first picture above shows the Kiwi Thunder team with astronaut and unlimited race pilot Robert "Hoot" Gibson. The second George Gibboney with John and Jan Parker, third and forth Unlimited racer Rare Bear and finally "Big Bossman" the nose art on the Tigercat Unlimited racer.

2005 Reno Air Races.

Well the Reno Air races are over for another year with some close racing being had, for some success and for others dissapointment but everyone seemed to have a great time. 

A couple of Maydays were called due to engine issues and fortunately all landed without further incident. The pilots of the chase plane do a great job shepherding in the damaged racers all the way to touchdown.

As usual Blue Thunder ran faultlessly over the weekend and ended up second in the Gold race to Darrell Greenamyer in his very fast twin turbo Lancair Legacy. I cant help but feeling that there is still more speed left in the Thunder Mustang (maybe a supercharger?) but as you might imagine that adds a lot of expense! so we will have to wait and see but we will be back next year hoping.

Unfortunately a number of the top P51-D based unlimited racers did not compete for various reasons (ranging from major engine troubles to the aeroplane being part of a matrimonial property dispute) but the racing was competitive. The results of the Gold race finals were,

Gold Race - Unlimited Class

Winner - John Penney in Rare Bear 466.3 mph (F8F-2, Bearcat)

2nd Place - Brian Sanders in Dreadnought 448.8 mph (Hawker Sea Fury)

Amazingly it was then Sea Fury's all the way to 9th place which was the first P51D Mustang!

Gold Race - Sport Class

Winner - Darrell Greenamyer in his Lancair Legacy 364.9 mph 

2nd Place - John Parker in the Thunder Mustang Blue Thunder 356.7 mph

3rd Place went to the NXT (Relentless), these sleek race machines didnt quite live up to expectations but definately worth keeping an eye on in future races.

This was an impressive performance from the Sport Class when you consider that the winning speeds for the Sport Class are faster than all of the 'Unlimited' racers in the Bronze race and would have finished mid-field in the Unlimited Silver race final! 

The general feeling is that the Sports class racing is about to get even more competitive and we will see the speeds rise even further. The Unlimited racers must be getting nervous, there was a last minute change to the race rules precluding aeroplanes under 4400lb from competing in the Unlimited Class!

For the full set of race results visit the Reno Air Racing Association web site.

The Blue Thunder team have been doing some pretty interesting stuff with real-time telemetry which adds a whole new level of involvment when you can watch the race and also see what is happening on board!

It was really wonderful to see four Thunder Mustangs in residence at American Air Racing (3 of which are flying) with Tom Gaston (Live Bait) and George Giboney (Rapid Travel) bring their machines down to Stead for the week. The fourth machine is still under construction by American Air Racing.

2004 Reno Air Races.