1997 Reno National Championship Air Race winner Strega home at last!

"The snow slowed us up" says Bill Kerchenfaut, of Team Strega ....
"it's down in Bakersfield now.....the wing's off, tail's off, engines out, prop's off"....

When we spoke with Bill earlier this winter, the outlook for getting Strega ready for Reno by September was not very good (even getting it home *from* Reno was in doubt!) Now that the aircraft is back on home turf, has the veteran Air Race Crew Chief gotten a close enough look to know if Reno '98 would now be a possibility?....

"Not real in-depth, not taking measurements and so-forth, so I don't really know......there are a lot of things we have to fix, a lot of things we wanted to fix, now we have the opportunity......As far as the extent of the damage, taking it apart is one thing.....you have to systematically check everything, and I haven't gotten that far yet."

.... One thing for sure, Team Strega has their work cut out for them.....*BUT* Bill is much more optimistic than the last time we talked with him.....
....We're all pulling for you guys!!.....

Stay tuned ...... this year just keeps getting more and more interesting! With more money-in-the-pot and more contenders moving towards the "may show" list and the "rumors" beginning to flow (and there are some verrrry interesting rumors flowing...stay tuned!) ... The 1998 Reno National Championship Air Race is shaping up to be very interesting indeed!

-Wayne Sagar-

FlightLine encourages our readers to support the Strega repair effort by going to the
"Strega Store" at the "Team Strega" website.

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