What a great time! What a crowd! What amazing racing! This
was the best year in a long time!
The week started out with great weather but lots of smoke
from the many fires in California. When the wind blew in, the smoke blew out –
but the winds brought a new set of issues. The wind was so bad on Sunday,
several classes had to stand down from their allotted course time because the
winds were above their limits – as addressed in the Rules of Competition.
But by Monday, everyone was back on the course and
qualifying began in earnest. The Unlimiteds had two sessions for qualifying
each day. By the end of Monday, Stevo Hinton had put up a time of 464.246. Not
the fastest he’s ever gone, but the fastest of the day. Each class has their own rule, so in the Unlimiteds
you can re-qualify if you want to better your time. Hinton probably thought this
would hold, and if not, he could easily go back up by Wednesday to put a better
number up.
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| Credit – Anthony Taylor The Sun coming up on Strega! This was her year! |
Dennis Sanders in Dreadnought put in a 432.860– which was pretty good for the
4360 powered Sea Fury. And Hoot Gibson went up in Strega to put down a pretty
disappointing 430.052. Not what Tiger and the Strega Crew had in mind, I’ll
bet.
Tuesday comes around, still cold and windy – but workable.
Curt Brown goes up in Sawbones and gets a 417.949 and Stewart Dawson in Rare
Bear goes up for two laps – getting a Disqualification on his first lap and
getting a 480.644 on his second lap. Nail bite time. Stewart is now on the pole
– with only one day left to qualify.
Wednesday’s qualifying session had all three of the “fast
guys” in the air, Rare Bear with Stewart, Voodoo with Hinton and Strega with
Hoot. Hoot drops down to the course and puts a nice 475.043 on the board.
Voodoo and Rare Bear stay in the Hold and taunt each other … never actually
going onto the course. Prevailing wisdom says they were both waiting for the
other to react to Strega’s time. But there were no takers.
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| Credit: Anthony Taylor The Rare Bear is BACK! |
So, by the end of qualifying, we have 5 aircraft over 400
mph and a wonderful array of warbirds in the 300 mph range. This includes Dan
Vance in Speedball Alice and Rob Gordon in Lady Jo – two aircraft missing for
the last few years. Glad you guys are back! Also 2 Rookies – Dusty Dowd in
Layla, his Yak-11 and Sal Rubino in his polished P-51D, Grim Reaper. Dan Martin
shared the flying duties with Sal – but it was Sal’s week.
The weather changed for Thursday. It was finally the warm weather we are more
accustomed to during the September event. Thankfully, we put away our mittens
and snow boots and were back in our Valley of Speed T-shirts.
The Unlimited Rules enable the three fastest qualifiers to
stand down on Thursday and gives them time to relax, or thrash – depending on
the year. Thursday’s Gold Race had Dennis Sanders in Dreadnought flying over
100 mph faster than Dan Vance in Speedball Alice. Dan released a video showing Dennis zooming by
which really shows two things, the focus of the pilot, in this case Dan Vance,
while he is getting passed. And the closure rate of two disparate aircraft on
the course.
The Race on Thursday had one other element I haven’t seen –
probably ever. Dennis Sanders cut a pylon. No kidding!
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| Credit: Anthony Taylor Not her best year, but Voodoo is always strong! |
So Friday comes along and the Big Three are together again.
This race has Rare Bear on the pole with Hoot in the second spot and Stevo in
third – based on Qualifying. Dennis and Curt Brown round out the 5 ship
formation based on their Heat 1A on Thursday.
With much jostling in the race, they end as they started –
giving even more excitement for Saturday. They all seemed healthy and all of
the pilots flew their hearts out. And the fans were thrilled!
Saturday’s race started as Friday’s did – Stewart, Hoot,
Stevo, Dennis and Curt in the top 5 with Brian Sanders in Argonaut bumping from
Silver to Gold based on his win in Heat 2B. And Saturday’s race was GREAT!
Hoot took the lead and kept in – averaging 484.793 through
the race. Voodoo was behind him at 475.482 and Stewart was on his tail at
474.760. The top three within just over 10 mph – epic race!
After the race, Strega had some issues with a cracked
exhaust stack. But, with all the talent on the field, that was easily fixed.
And they were ready to roll again on Sunday.
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| Credit: Tim Adams Strega’s Cracked Exhaust Stack after Saturday’s Race |
Sunday arrives and the weather is perfect. The crowd is the
largest we’ve seen in years. And we are all ready for the final Unlimited
Showdown of 2015. Will it be Hoot, Stewart, Stevo – or will all three push each
other too hard and set up Dreadnought for the win. Wagers were happening in the
Pits and the Boxes. Fans were taking sides and everyone was in a great mood. It
all comes down to this – the next 10 minutes tells who the victor will be – and
who will be the first loser.
They all line up in front of the crowd, Hoot, Stevo, Stewart,
Dennis, Curt, and Mark Watt this time in Argo and finally Korey Wells bumped up
from Silver in 924. Trivia time – four different engines in four different Sea
Furys. You don’t see that every day! But – I digress.
The come down the Chute, Gentlemen, you have a Race… Stewart
briefly took the lead, then Hoot takes his lead back and never let’s go. Voodoo
and the Bear go back and forth until the 6th lap when Stevo calls a
Mayday. It seems Voodoo had oil coming out of the breather. The oil was showing
has light grey smoke and Voodoo was out. Stevo made a beautiful landing and the
race for the Gold continued.
There were no losers this day in the Breitling Gold Race.
Hoot Gibson fulfilled his dream of winning the Gold Unlimited Race. He had some
troubles on the course earlier in the week – but got it all together at the
end. Who ever thought an Astronaut, a Farmer and a Witch could make such
beautiful music together. Congrats to the entire Strega Crew!
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| Credit: Tim Adams An Astronaut, a Farmer and a Witch walk into a bar… |
Rare Bear was not a loser on this day. They regained their
reputation as a FAST airplane. After being plagued by gremlins for years, Bear
finally looked like her old self again. Congrats to Stewart and the entire
Ezell and Rare Bear Crews for putting those awful gremlins behind you and giving
us a great race.
Voodoo was not a loser on this day. The crew performed
seamlessly. The Racer was ready – but one small issue kept them from reaching
their goal. They’ll be back – and they won’t ever have that problem again.
To the rest of the Unlimited Pilots, Crew and Owners: THANK
YOU! Thank you for putting so much of your lives into a one week a year event.
Thank you for the time, the energy, the ingenuity, and the countless dollars you
put into this amazing sport.
And to RARA: THANK YOU for never giving up. This was a great
year and the new regime did an outstanding job. There were issues and minor
problems all week, but you were receptive to hearing what people had to say and
you made the best effort to take care of things. BRAVO!
And to the FANS! THANK YOU for coming back! The stands were
packed and the Pits were crazy with activity. So nice to see you back in your
seats again!
Next month, I’ll cover the other classes and share more
about the event and the plans for the future.
What a great year!
Marilyn Dash
Ruby Red Racing
Ruby Red Racing
