Great Reno Air Race Stories

[Desertdawg]

After reading the replies in "Tiger Sold Strega", there are some memorable stories out there. We need a thread dedicated only to these stories and in turn preserve them for the future. There are 100s of great stories that can be told.

Heres 3 from the thread:

Posted by BellcobraIV

One of the times when I was strapping Lyle into the Bear he was chuckling a little, I asked him what was up. Our team had found out Tiger's crew frequency before the race and Lyle had gone onto the "secrit Freq" and asked Tige' "Hey what are you doin' wasting your time up here in Reno for, The deadly green bug is destroying your crop down in Bakersfield. You should be home." I couldn't hear Tiger's response. But suffice it to say that until the end of Lyle's days he considered Tiger one of his best friends.

John Slack


Posted by Matt Jackson

The best line I ever heard Lyle say was during the introductions to the 1992 Gold Final. Sandy Sanders asked Lyle what his strategy was for the race. Lyle had been plagued all week with airplane issues. He took the mike and put it up against his lips and said " I am just an old Bowevil gonna eat me a cotton farmer". I thought I was going to crap my pants. The crowd went crazy. Tiger was next to get the microphone. He thought a second and elected not to say anything. It was priceless. Tiger later went on to get revenge as he eventually won the event. But it was certainly the best line ever uttered at Reno.



Posted by Airracedecals

Great thread! Other rivalries were very entertaining also! Anyone remember when the Risky Business crew replaced Miss America's chalks with sandbags?!?! Funny as hell!

[Big_Jim]

Re: Great Reno Air Race Stories

After reading the replies in "Tiger Sold Strega", there are some memorable stories out there. We need a thread dedicated only to these stories and in turn preserve them for the future. There are 100s of great stories that can be told.

Heres 3 from the thread:

Posted by BellcobraIV

One of the times when I was strapping Lyle into the Bear he was chuckling a little, I asked him what was up. Our team had found out Tiger's crew frequency before the race and Lyle had gone onto the "secrit Freq" and asked Tige' "Hey what are you doin' wasting your time up here in Reno for, The deadly green bug is destroying your crop down in Bakersfield. You should be home." I couldn't hear Tiger's response. But suffice it to say that until the end of Lyle's days he considered Tiger one of his best friends.

John Slack


Posted by Matt Jackson

The best line I ever heard Lyle say was during the introductions to the 1992 Gold Final. Sandy Sanders asked Lyle what his strategy was for the race. Lyle had been plagued all week with airplane issues. He took the mike and put it up against his lips and said " I am just an old Bowevil gonna eat me a cotton farmer". I thought I was going to crap my pants. The crowd went crazy. Tiger was next to get the microphone. He thought a second and elected not to say anything. It was priceless. Tiger later went on to get revenge as he eventually won the event. But it was certainly the best line ever uttered at Reno.



Posted by Airracedecals

Great thread! Other rivalries were very entertaining also! Anyone remember when the Risky Business crew replaced Miss America's chalks with sandbags?!?! Funny as hell!

Kind of like the time that a pile of horse manure ended up under the radiator outlet door of Pegasus one morning?

[flyingjibus]

Re: Great Reno Air Race Stories

There was the time I rode 2 up down the ramp at max speed on a trail 90 right after the gold race on sunday.

At one point I noticed that a ramp security jeep was chasing us. When I turned my head to look at him my hat blew off. Had to stop and get it, which allowed the security guy to catch up and actually get my hat before I did.

He handed it to me and said "Two things, dont ride motorcycles on the ramp, and if you do ride a motorcycle on the ramp, you should take your hat off first."

[ChrisMX105]

Re: Great Reno Air Race Stories

When Freddie Cabanas brought the Sea Fury Race 103 with CRAF on the side (Conch Republic Air Force) We altered the F to a P with electrical tape. Was after lunch when they noticed it...........

Or when Howard left Grumman in the cockpit of the Bearcat and went back to the hotel. Grumman climbed out and spent a couple of days gallivanting around the airport and left Howard some great letters. I still have my copies somewhere that Howard sent with the crew pic that year.

[Guest]

Re: Great Reno Air Race Stories

Now that I've got some whiskers as a Pylon Judge, hopefully I can divulge without being canned!

First year as a judge and had no idea what to expect. We rented a Chysler Sebring convertible, lived in a two-man tent out of styrofoam coolers in the Judge's campground eating soggy Oreo's and PBJ's. After a couple days working Speed Bump (road guards that close the roads during racing action), we decided to take off into the infield and find our way around to various pylons...get to know more folks and get a sense of which pylons we'd like to work if/when the time came for us to "graduate."

Turns out, there's a TON of criss-crossing dirt roads and paths out there and at the time, we had no map to speak of. So, here we are, tearing up the infield finding our way from one pylon to another. Came time to head back to the campground from one of the outer pylons. 85 degrees, stereo blasting "Born in the USA", I take a turn off one dirt road to a much wider southbound one, which has a gentle rise to it. Buddy yells out, "Hey. You sure this is the right way?" I nod in the affirmative and keep on drivin'. All of a sudden, I'm faced with a very, very wide, long stretch of asphalt with REALLY REALLY big, white lane lines and the numbers "14" come into view dead ahead. Holy $&!T!!!! No radio but we know the ANG F-15 squadron is inbound for Rnwy 14 as they've been circling. Well ain't that just perfect.

We're still workin'...but it wasn't because we were the smartest humans on the planet that day.

[Wild Bill Kelso]

Re: Great Reno Air Race Stories

My best story to date was the year I watched LD and Tiger beat the **** out of two drunks who told LD "We're gonna **** up your airplane so bad tonight you won't recognize it". LD over the rope... whack! Second guy tries to jump LD. Tiger over the rope... whack! I yell something like "hell yeah tiger"! Tiger looks over at me and says something like "I sure kicked his ass".

[Airracedecals]

Re: Great Reno Air Race Stories

Gooooood stuff!!!!

[Desertdawg]

Re: Great Reno Air Race Stories

Happy 4th July.

I thought for sure we'd get more stories. Are we all bashful, no way, come on folks, promise you won't get roasted over the coals. :-)

Come on Wayne, I know you have plenty of good stories to share.

[lowpasskid]

Re: Great Reno Air Race Stories

Happy 4th July.

I thought for sure we'd get more stories. Are we all bashful, no way, come on folks, promise you won't get roasted over the coals. :-)

Come on Wayne, I know you have plenty of good stories to share.

a couple of years ago we were standing in the pits, I was next to a pilot ( didn't know who it was until later} and he told his wife " I gotta fly the buick, I hope I don't wreck the buick" cracked me up!

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Great Reno Air Race Stories

Happy 4th July.

Come on Wayne, I know you have plenty of good stories to share.

I'm digging, there's lots of personal stories, I don't know if they would be of the "good" stories to share..

I remember being out at a Bear Christmas party, one of the biggest wind events in the area.. unfortunately, I've been lucky to be there for all three of the main wind events at Reno over the past 40 years!

Long story short, Lyle flew in, last flight in.. said something like" I'm damn glad I wasn't flyin that thing" History will give me liberty but I was there and it was really close to that..

Out at Stead, there were complete hangar doors dancing across the ramp.. It was king of unreal.. Drive along in really ****ty vis, see hangar door dancing with garbage cans... wonder about the fate of the AC on field!

It was worse than it sounds!