BRING BACK SLACK!

[Shawn Aro]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

How about some sprit of 77 from Mojavy 1976 photos by my dad Shawn

[speeddemon]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

How about some sprit of 77 from Mojavy 1976 photos by my dad Shawn

Mojave '76 certainly had the 'potential' to be a great race. Unfortunately, it was one of those events that once it went from paper to reality, just never happened. The Bearcat was out because of the Keystone Kops routine, and Burnstine not only didn't even HAVE Foxy Lady at the time (though it was entered, it was actually owned by Levitz at the time), but he crashed Suzy Q on Wednesday.

But still...if it had been heads-up Bear, Red Baron, Precious Metal, Miss Candace and throw in Suzy Q for good measure, that would have been a good final heat.

As it was, it was still a pretty good battle between McClain in the RB and Cummins in Miss Candace....but once again, Doc forgot to turn on the switches and blew the engine halfway through...just as he was catching Mac. Gary said "screw this" and just cruised home in 2nd.

[Shawn Aro]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

Shawn

[speeddemon]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

Shawn

Yup, that's Ralph pretending to be a 'pilot'.

Actually, I'm surprised to see him there. I heard he had more time in the back seat of a Mustang than any other man in history! :-)

[BellCobraIV]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

Brad,
Hey thanks for the patience.

The Back to back Mojave losses were due to two completely different things that worked together to cause the same result. At the time of the 74 Mojave Race when Mac cruised by to take the win at the end. That was a heck of a week, There were some cylinder changes during that week, there was major work done on the then Merlin Powered Red Baron’s engine. In fact Friday night the Red Baron wasn’t looking promising to even be a runner! Saturday morning when we got down to the restaurant at the Lake Shore Inn in California City The Red Baron guys that were there for breakfast including Zeuschel were looking a little down in the mouth and burned out. As we sat wondering if they had any luck getting the airplane running the night before, soon the answer came, starting as a dot on the horizon zeroing in straight on the restaurant window Mac came screaming across the desert pulling up just enough to miss the hotel. The building shook like crazy, and the Baron guys knew they had a runner. Mac had studied Lyle and watched the way that Lyle would react to shadows on the course. He knew that if he hung back for the bulk of the race outside of striking distance that Lyle wouldn’t push the airplane any harder that he needed to win. (this was before the crew radio days) So for Sunday Mac would speed check Lyle when they came down the main straight to determine how far behind he could be and make up the distance then Mac would drop back a little to keep the shadow out of Lyle’s scan. As the last run for the home pylon put the shadows where they were not easy to watch and Mac knew they weren’t able to outrun the Bear at that point. So Mac set it up and Lyle was comfortable with his lead and as they came around for the last straight away mac came on with full power and stayed with his shadow in the right place running slightly low and wide. As Lyle pulled up to the right doing a victory Roll, Mac pulled up to the left and did one after just passing the Bear at the end. Lyle taxied in and wondered why the crew had such long faces, He didn’t know he had been passed until Bill Kientz climbed on the wing to tell him.

The next year the strategy wasn’t as deep Lyle and Darryl finally had their shoot out with both Bearcats starting out healthy, as the pace plane came down on the course and the word “gentlemen” of the statement “Gentlemen you have a race” was uttered the two Bearcats left the crowd behind, Faster and faster they pounded around the course, until late in the race with Darryl’s tailwheel popping in and out and having had an intake tube start to leak the smaller engined Bearcat started to run off the pace. At that point both airplanes backed off a little bit but meanwhile the first Merlin to really run in the modern era spooled up and Cliff Cummins was making up ground and fast (still before crew radios that worked!) on the second to the last lap Cliff started to pull off the course and then discovered he had another lap to go. Back down on the course the little plane built up speed as it was unloaded aerodynamically and very erratically it held on the course as Miss Candace made the last turn there was an awful lot of energy left in the airframe and with the engine running great Cliff was able to Pass Lyle once again for two years in a row the pass happened right at the finish line. Unfortunately for Cliff as all the airplanes taxied in most on hand were rushing over to congratulate Lyle for beating Darryl. The crowd around Miss Candace was about a third of the size as the one around Lyle and his Bearcat. Poor Cliff he finally won a race but still didn’t get all the attention. But the engine told everyone that the mustangs were not totally done as had been predicted earlier. Sorry for the quick and dirty but………

[speeddemon]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

I just love stories with happy endings.......


Now just get Tommy 2 Gunn to tell us about those god-awful wing fairings.

[Jim58]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

we want another "Big Bad Bear" story Uncle John

[F4U-7]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

Isn't this your bird.....

And why didn't he just stick w/ the Mustang...

[tomy2gunn]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

Fairings ..............Im looking for pictures of when we removed them. We were in the process of sealing the ammo bays when we noticed a water trail into the flaps area so we took them off and made sure every thing was clean and clear of that bad word that starts with the letter C. There was so much old oil caked to the inside of the fairings. The old paint from the Phoneix showed up at that time. If I can find pic I will post them. But what I am totally taken back is the memory that JOHN has. I am so amazed at the recall he has, and very blessed he has remembered all this time. John thanks for bringing all this back to life to me.

John I have a question............Do remember what was Kicked as it was about to PEE on the brake pads of the bear..........???

tomy2gunn

[BellCobraIV]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

F4U-7,
Interesting question and one that I have only heard maybe,…Never before. While racing a Mustang may have been good for fun, I think that overall, racing the Bearcat that is the most successful Unlimited class racer in the history of the sport could hardly be classed as a mistake. So sticking with the Mustang would not have brought some of the most exciting racing in the sport. Imagine how the thrills of watching Lyle and Tiger do their rivalry if it would not have been a Round vs. V12, Army vs. Navy, skinny chick vs. one with curves thing. Lyle was able to set the time climb, the 3KM, and numerous course records along with my personal favorite,

The record for cruising from Mojave to Reno.

OK kids lets sit around the fire and listen to uncle John babble, When the Pond racer was first publicly introduced at Mojave they invited Lyle out to make an appearance at the introduction. When we arrived they told Lyle that they would like him to make a fly-by so the crowd could see the plane that currently was the record holder in the class they wanted to race in. Lyle asked me to load the plane with ADI so that he could make a high speed pass for everyone. This was the point where I had to tell Lyle we had not unpickled the water pumps and that we did not have the time for setting up the ADI so he would have to make the pass dry, understand even dry the Bear has qualified in the top 5 at Reno so it can still make pretty good power, Lyle had decided to show the crowd what the Pond racer was up against so that nobody would have delusions of this stuff being easy! Well The Museum at Chino had brought up some very nice warbirds to make passes at the unveiling, and they did just that they made some nice fly-bys across the runway from the crowd at an altitude that provided a good view of the airplanes, as The guys from chino do so well. The next part of the show the announcer explained that the Pond racer was built to get away from cutting up the warbirds to make racers and that would allow the current crop of racers to be restored. The pond racer then made a fly-by that was across the runway from the crowd and kind of arced in a bank as to show off the plan form of the aircraft. It was a medium speed pass that showed the airplane to good advantage. The next part was Lyle Fly-by, Coming in from the crowds right about 50 feet AGL with his wingtip right on the crowd line as hard as he could dry he shot past the crowd exiting stage left, climbed into one half of a Cuban eight, back to 50 feet AGL enter from stage left wingtip on the crowd line exit stage right. You could feel the force as the plane went by both times. The Bearcat had made its appearance! Both planes then landed and taxied in where the crowd could see them close up. The Pond racer sounding as it did like two buckets of angry hornets, and the Bearcat sounding like a Top Fuel car idling into position. I guess I’m glad that Lyle had the Bear instead of just another Mustang. But what ever Lyle had he would have made it his own unmistakable presence. The other project that Lyle was considering about a couple of years previous to getting the Bearcat was another P-51 that Richard Vartanian owned, Richard owned the Mustang N13Y among others, in addition to owning N66111 the P-51 that Lyle raced in ’65 and ’66, at the Reno, Lancaster, Las Vegas races. Had Lyle raced N13Y back in the late 60’s that makes a great “what if”.

OH, Yeah I forgot, "The record for cruising from Mojave to Reno"

That year as the Pond racer was getting ready for it's first trip to Reno, we took the Bear to launch for Reno, Lyle called the NAA and set in motoin the city to city record for Mojave to Reno, what better way to welcome the new kid on the block than setting the record from his house to the races.

It's all about wanting to win, Pilots that race just to look cool, or just to fly trick machinery are useless to me. Lyle Shelton, Darryl Greenameyer, Skip Holm, Bill "Tiger" Destefani, Bob Love, Ray Cote, they didn't care if anyone thought they were cool, as long as they thought they were first! There is a small circle of real first class race pilots that risked family, fortune, and friendships for the goal. I salute the passion of my dad and his Bearcat, and the others above. Winning is everything, everything else is just an excuse.

[Stevo]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

Man-O-Man! I LOVE reading all the old "back in the day" stories you guys have. Good Stuff, keep it up

[Skyracer]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

UH-OH!!! More and more of these "Back In the Day" stories are becoming "Remember When" for me.

Oh nevermind...just a senior moment.

[Leo]

Re: BRING BACK SLACK!

Love it! We need a book! I bet there are enough stries from those in the know about all these planes to fill a very fascinating volume.