What were the top 15 Best racing years of Reno?

[BellCobraIV]

Re: What were the top 15 Best racing years of Reno?

The problem here is its all subjective. This is going to be the crotchety old man coming out again to yell at the kids to get off his lawn. But you don't know what you don't know. There are members of this board who's experience with air racing begins at "X" date...and that point forward is their only true reference point. Anything prior to that can only be "experienced" through reading/video/pictures/stories/etc. But those things don't convey a whole like actually being there in person and experiencing something first-hand can. It's those missed-tangibles that make it so subjective. Some contributors to this thread have been here a long-time on the scale and others less-so. Each suggestion/opinion here is based on that persons frame of reference.

Personally, what frustrates me about such debates is it devolving into the barber shop boxing argument from Coming To America. You're going to argue what you know...even if you don't know what you don't know. You can't truly know how good/bad anything was if you don't know what exactly you missed.

George Martin is quoted on the liner notes for "The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

"world we live in today, it is difficult to appreciate the excitement of the Beatles breakthrough. My youngest daughter, Lucy, now nine years old, once asked me about them, ?You used to record them, didn?t you, Daddy?? she asked, ?Were they as great as the Bay City Rollers?? ?Probably not,? I replied. Some day she will find out."

Someday the newer fans to Reno will understand that most of the newer crowd of Unlimited Class racers are really the Bay City Rollers. They provide a show with all of the flash and images that Reno is famous for however they music and the talent is not the same. I'm excepting Stevo Hinton who to me is the Tom Petty of the new crowd with all of the passion and desire and magic to have been able to compete historically with those heroes of the past. So you can't have The Beatles, might as well enjoy the Bay City Rollers.....just know that there is and was a difference.

Rock on......"Running Down A Dream!"

[knot4u]

Re: What were the top 15 Best racing years of Reno?

George Martin is quoted on the liner notes for "The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

"world we live in today, it is difficult to appreciate the excitement of the Beatles breakthrough. My youngest daughter, Lucy, now nine years old, once asked me about them, ?You used to record them, didn?t you, Daddy?? she asked, ?Were they as great as the Bay City Rollers?? ?Probably not,? I replied. Some day she will find out."

Someday the newer fans to Reno will understand that most of the newer crowd of Unlimited Class racers are really the Bay City Rollers. They provide a show with all of the flash and images that Reno is famous for however they music and the talent is not the same. I'm excepting Stevo Hinton who to me is the Tom Petty of the new crowd with all of the passion and desire and magic to have been able to compete historically with those heroes of the past. So you can't have The Beatles, might as well enjoy the Bay City Rollers.....just know that there is and was a difference.

Rock on......"Running Down A Dream!"

Hi John, thanks for posting. I recall you teased us with a story about when Lyle actually let it all hang out in the Bearcat. I'd love to know what happened.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: What were the top 15 Best racing years of Reno?

Hi John, thanks for posting. I recall you teased us with a story about when Lyle actually let it all hang out in the Bearcat. I'd love to know what happened.

I'm still teasing. It's part of another recent bigger story.
John

[L.E.D.]

Re: What were the top 15 Best racing years of Reno?

The racing is one thing, but the personalities are a big draw.

I recently got interested in Formula One auto racing (which is about as far from F-1 air racing as you can get in many ways.) I got hooked because there was a show on Netflix that followed several teams through a season and gave the viewer a chance to really get to know the crews, owners and drivers.

What air racing has over auto racing is that the planes themselves have personalities. In F1, or NASCAR, the individual cars don't have any personality.

Lyle Shelton and Howie Keefe really understood that airplanes should have names. The crowd gets that extra hook into the action. Add to that the drama of the late night thrash and you've got a real story to sell the crowd on.

On that basis the big years are years like Jeannie's last-minute rebuild ending in winning the gold, Dan Martin's super-stocker challenges, and any of a number of times the Bear had to swap something. You can even add on the Sanders waxing Dreadnought when they get into high maintenance mode.

Or you can look at the grudge match qualifying times - like in 1996 when David Price qualified at 490 and Lyle came back with 491.

I think there's enough material for a four-hour miniseries every year out of a week's racing at Reno.. who wants to pitch it to Netflix?

[CubersWrist]

Re: What were the top 15 Best racing years of Reno?

The racing is one thing, but the personalities are a big draw.

I recently got interested in Formula One auto racing (which is about as far from F-1 air racing as you can get in many ways.) I got hooked because there was a show on Netflix that followed several teams through a season and gave the viewer a chance to really get to know the crews, owners and drivers.

What air racing has over auto racing is that the planes themselves have personalities. In F1, or NASCAR, the individual cars don't have any personality.

I think there's enough material for a four-hour miniseries every year out of a week's racing at Reno.. who wants to pitch it to Netflix?

Completely agree.

Netflix was a conflict with the NBC contract. But that might not be in place anymore?
But the sad thing is with social media and websites every team has the ability to make their own Netflix-style special (see Mark Patey and the Dark Aero 1 youtube channels). But that takes a lot of work to plan, record, and edit the videos and then you factor in keeping speed mods secret. And then they aren't getting paid for it and it's hard to get any attention if you aren't a warbird team...So, there needs to be a higher demand from the fans for the teams to do this stuff. If there isn't enough demand for teams to take more selfies and videos then there is little chance of Netflix doing anything with it either.

[Big_Jim]

Re: What were the top 15 Best racing years of Reno?

George Martin is quoted on the liner notes for "The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

"world we live in today, it is difficult to appreciate the excitement of the Beatles breakthrough. My youngest daughter, Lucy, now nine years old, once asked me about them, ?You used to record them, didn?t you, Daddy?? she asked, ?Were they as great as the Bay City Rollers?? ?Probably not,? I replied. Some day she will find out."

Someday the newer fans to Reno will understand that most of the newer crowd of Unlimited Class racers are really the Bay City Rollers. They provide a show with all of the flash and images that Reno is famous for however they music and the talent is not the same. I'm excepting Stevo Hinton who to me is the Tom Petty of the new crowd with all of the passion and desire and magic to have been able to compete historically with those heroes of the past. So you can't have The Beatles, might as well enjoy the Bay City Rollers.....just know that there is and was a difference.

Rock on......"Running Down A Dream!"

(Best Jim Gaffigan voice) "Hey, I like the Bay City Rollers.....that guy's a d*ck." :-)

[L.E.D.]

Re: What were the top 15 Best racing years of Reno?

Completely agree.
If there isn't enough demand for teams to take more selfies and videos then there is little chance of Netflix doing anything with it either.

All I can say is that somebody thought there was a story in F1 auto racing that non-fans would buy - and it worked on me. They've made 2 seasons out of "Fastest Car." There's interest out there.

[CubersWrist]

Re: What were the top 15 Best racing years of Reno?

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