2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

[GRNDP51]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

I’m pretty upset and confused with how this is working. 24 doesn’t get to race today because it didn’t finish yesterday so they filled the class with reserve planes...??? And the Vampire doesn’t get to race either? This is stupid!

They just said the Vampire is broken, that makes more sense...

[CubersWrist]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

I’m pretty upset and confused with how this is working. 24 doesn’t get to race today because it didn’t finish yesterday so they filled the class with reserve planes...??? And the Vampire doesn’t get to race either? This is stupid!

Very simple reason is 24 broke on Saturday. 24 broke/stretched the crankcase bolts. So he was making a lot of pressure.

[GRNDP51]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

Congrats to Team One Moment!!! That plane is very VERY fast and I love to see Andy do his thing

Thought I would give some final "wrap-up" thoughts to this thread.

One Moment is definitely the new standard for racing. That plane appeared to run flawlessly all weekend, and that's saying a lot since he kept the speeds near 400 every day of racing. That is impressive stuff!

I think Race 39 has some work to do. We know what Race 39 is capable of, and it surprised me that the new engine was plagued with all sorts of issues. We finally have someone to push Jeff

Race 24 was hands down the most impressive racer in my eyes. That's a really fast Glasair with only a year of prior race experience under it and Jim Rust's belt. Jim stuck with Andy pretty well on Friday and I was really happy to see it. Seems like Saturday he knew Jeff and Kevin were gonna be hauling up to the front and he wanted to take an advantage down the chute. Just a little too much pushin'! I might have a new favorite Sport racer nonetheless.

Relentless did outstanding this year! It will definitely take a few years for Kevin to get that plane back to speed, but it sounded fantastic and ran great on Saturday and Sunday. I know we all wanted Kevin up front, but 2nd place is 2nd place no matter how you slice it.

Lastly, the Dreadnought/Czech Mate of Sport, Bob Mills in Mojo holding his own once again. Doesn't seem like it'll ever be a Gold winner, but it's still a cool plane.

I think the disappointments would be Miss Karen II and Grove's GA1. I totally understand how hard it is to race in Sport Gold, something that took Andy plenty of years to dial in. Miss Karen II has potential, but it might not ever get there. I think Vicky's Lucky Too might be the only Chia-prepped Legacy that can take on Andy. GA1 also was a little disappointing considering how much of a race plane it is, but again, it's probably going to take Karl a few years to really get the juices flowing and want to run for first. Was happy to see both of these planes on the course once again, also should say congrats to Karl for finishing in the Gold this year.

And then the scratches; Havoc and Swiss Thunder. The Havoc incident sucks. That plane had serious potential, with a killer pilot at the stick. Curious to know Sean's next steps....! Swiss Thunder, well maybe next year. I never got confirmation, but it seems like they put the 2018 stocker engine back on with the black prop and never got to race with the Exotic hot-rod engine. I really want to see this plane succeed!

A great year of racing. I look forward to Sport all year and love watching the modifications that are being done to these racers. I only see Sport becoming more and more interesting as the years go on.

[wadeh]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

Swiss Thunder, well maybe next year. I never got confirmation, but it seems like they put the 2018 stocker engine back on with the black prop and never got to race with the Exotic hot-rod engine. I really want to see this plane succeed!

We spent some time in the pits talking with the Swiss Thunder folks. They qualified with the ferry engine, but were running with the race engine on Friday and Saturday.

[Race5]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

I think the disappointments would be Miss Karen II and Grove's GA1. I totally understand how hard it is to race in Sport Gold, something that took Andy plenty of years to dial in. Miss Karen II has potential, but it might not ever get there. I think Vicky's Lucky Too might be the only Chia-prepped Legacy that can take on Andy. GA1 also was a little disappointing considering how much of a race plane it is, but again, it's probably going to take Karl a few years to really get the juices flowing and want to run for first. Was happy to see both of these planes on the course once again, also should say congrats to Karl for finishing in the Gold this year.

Miss Karen suffered a mag failure in the Gold.

[GRNDP51]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

Thanks for the info gents.

Wadeh, do you know why they opted against the new prop?

Jason, sucks about Miss Karen. Andy and Lynn worked hard on her

[wadeh]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

Wadeh, do you know why they opted against the new prop?

They said that they still hadn't figured out the prop. They've been testing the 5 blade on Clas Thunder, but have not been happy with it. The 3 blade that they ran this week is probably not their long term solution. I don't remember that we got into specifics.

Interestingly, they said that they'd not been able to test the race engine in actual conditions before actually running it in a heat this week (which they'd not done yet when we spoke to them). They were expecting more manifold pressure than they'd seen yet.

[Fence Sence]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

Miss Karen suffered a mag failure in the Gold.

I’d say that correlates to what it looked liked. Thanks, I was wondering what happened.

[georgiacub]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

I’d say that correlates to what it looked liked. Thanks, I was wondering what happened.

Miss Karen II had both mags fail during the Gold Race. It happened starting down "The Valley of Speed" in the middle of the 4th lap. Miss Karen II was running the best she had run all week and was closing on 47 and 42 when the engine quit cold. Pulled up and landed on 14. The full feathering prop came in handy.

[CubersWrist]

Re: 2019 Sport Gold Synopsis

#44 had a rough week. Saturday night a cylinder and turbo were removed. Sounded bad on Saturday and was troubleshot to the magneto. On Sunday morning it was still not fully together and right after #56 was back from the silver race they ran over borrowed a magneto and bolted it to #44. So the result they had this week was absolutely not for a lack of trying.

#67 found the replica style 3 blade was slightly faster than all the other propeller combinations they've tried (3 blade, 4 blade, 5 blade).

#39 maydayed on Sunday because an induction tube blew off one of the turbos.