Victory

[Leo]

I don't get it people.
There have been several mentions that there was no "showdown", that the Bears victory was a TKO.
The weather was bad, and Skip cut a pylon. As I understand it was 4. There was no rain at 4. Skip cut a pylon, it happens to the best.
That John saw it and possibly held back was to me a great strategy, and a risky one if he was wrong. And it worked.
It was the best and closest race I've seen in a long time. I say cudo's to the lot of them.

Leo

[Gary Osif]

Re: Victory

Scotty G reported on his site that Skip had a fogged canopy, contributing to the cut.

It was a great race. One of the best in years!

Gary

[Stevo]

Re: Victory

Not only was the Gold Unlimited race a close one but many other were close as well. The Gold Sport and Gold T-6 are the ones that come to my mind right now. It was a great week, I'm already lookig forward to next year. I've got a little over 1000 photo's to go through (and that's AFTRER deleting all the crapy ones), as soon as I can get that done I'll post a few.

PS Gary, are you talking about WAP? Since a few day's before Reno I have not been able to get on, is the connection over there sporadic or is it just me?

[Gary Osif]

Re: Victory

WAP is still very sporadic.

Gary

[speeddemon]

Re: Victory

I don't get it people.
There have been several mentions that there was no "showdown", that the Bears victory was a TKO.

You know what? Anyone who 'questions' the Bear's win, or says they won it on a technicality is either ignorant, or smoking some pretty good weed. A win is a win. To win, you have to be the first one across the finish line LEGALLY. Dago wasn't. Bear was. HOW can you question a victory like that?

[Stevo]

Re: Victory

Exactly. The whole way home from Reno I just kept thinking back on all the poster here that kept saying The Bear was dead. I just want to say "HA!" This just proves that with a good... no GREAT team and alot of determination The Bear can win (and will again ).

[Leo]

Re: Victory

"A win is a win. To win, you have to be the first one across the finish line LEGALLY. Dago wasn't. Bear was. HOW can you question a victory like that?"

My point exactly.

Leo

[jarrodeu]

Re: Victory

I just wish it coulda been a clean race. This was one of the best races in years!
Anyone feel like turning some of these great pictures into computer wallpaper?
Jarrod

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Victory

I just wish it coulda been a clean race.

Jarrod, exactly what do you mean by the above statement? What was not clean about it.

As has been said above and elsewhere, if you win, you win, period. If someone cuts a pylon, they shoot THEMSELVES in the foot, nobody made them do it. Skip Holm is, obviously, one of the best of the best race pilots of all time.. On this day, John Penney was just " that much better.

Wayne Sagar

[Sky Critter]

Re: Victory

Wasn't it in '95 that Dago Red (driven by David Price) cut a pylon giving the win to Strega? And I think the Bear got 2nd that year.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Victory

I agree....What's so unclean about the win? Stating that the race was "not clean" implies that somebody cheated. I hope you just mis-spoke and didn't refer to such dishonesty by the Bear team. Yes, it would have been nice if no pylons were cut and no penalties were applied to give the win to the Bear team, but hey, that's air racing!


In any kind of racing, taking a shortcut across a portion of a track can be considered illegal, cheating, or just simply not proper racing, as it was in this case. Technically, Dago Red left the proper race course by passing on the inside of a pylon. Many auto race tracks have walls or gravel barriers to prevent cutting corners....Reno has to use the pylon rule (unless you want to built 100-foot-tall walls around the inside of the race course...Not very practical, is it?)

Imagine a runner in the Olympics cutting across a portion of the infield during a track meet in order to get to the finish line first. He would not be declared the winner under any condition. You must stay on the track in order for there to be a fair race...

In essence, that's what happened at reno. By cutting a pylon, one takes a shorter path around the course, and so penalties were included in the rules to disallow such "shortcuts". Without this rule, everyone would be racing inside the pylon course in order to get to the finish line in a shorter period. Make sense?

-->I realize that Skip did not cut the corner intentionally, so no need to bring up that point. It doesn't matter. There's no way to tell if a racer cuts a pylon intentionally or accidentally (unless they are forced inside to avoid an obvious mid-air collision), so the rule applies in practically all cases...cut a pylon, get a time penalty. It's a fair rule that provides for fair racing.

Look into Reno Air-race history, and you will see that losing a race due to cutting a single pylon or more has happened before....This isn't the first time a race was lost this way, and it won't be the last.

The Rare Bear team didn't cross the finish line first, but they won fair and square. That's all there is to it. This was a clean win.

[Sky Critter]

Re: Victory

RARA has imposed other types of penalties in the past as well. A couple of pilots were fined several hundred dollars for flying too low and Voodoo was assessed an entire lap one year for jumping the start...none of which I believe were intentional. The pilot work loads are huge and the stress levels are high in any class of race. I've been flying since '87 and can't imagine racing on the deck with these guys...well...I can imagine. What an honor and a privilege it must be to be on the other side of the line. My hat's off to ALL of them...regardless where they place!

[Leo]

Re: Victory

And was'nt last years Silver a mess of pylon cuts due to visibility?
We all sit after each race and wait for the announcment whether there were any cuts or no, and how it effected the placements. It's part of racing.
Personally I think John's strategy was great, and part of what this sport is all about.

Go Bear!
Go Dago!
And thanks to the pilots and crews for a great race.

Leo

[jarrodeu]

Re: Victory

Im a bear fan and just wish dago didn't cut the pylon. I would have been more exciting with faster speeds. From what Im getting, John pulled off the power a little when he saw skip cut the pylon. Your right, the Bear did WIN, no question about it.
Jarrod

[Unregistered]

Re: Victory

Looking back in the RARA website data base Rare Bear finished first in one of the Sunday Gold races back in the early 70's but was pennalized and lost the race and I believed moved back to 5th. Not sure what the infraction was.

Joe