25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

[t-dub]

I was cleaning out the office today and stumbled across some misc. prints, including some from the Silver Anniversery in 1988, and thought you guys would enjoy a little blast from the past! (L to R) top: John Maloney and the #1 "Super Corsair". Mickey Rupp's #5 "Old Crow". John Crocker and #6 "Sumthin' Else". Jimmy Leeward and #9 "Leeward Air Ranch Special".(The haze is smoke from "Furias" who has just taxied by!) Don Whittington and #09 "Precious Metal" doing prop tests and engine runs down the edge of the tarmac! (He would eventually belly land Precious in the desert later on this day due to prop governor failure). (L to R) middle: Chuck Hall and #11 "Miss America". Lloyd Hamilton and #15 "Furias". John Sandberg and #18 "Tsunami" preparing to do some engine runs. John Putman and crew preparing to run the "Gold" in #69 "Georgia Mae". Scott Sherman and #84 "Stilletto". (L to R) bottom: Although the next shot is from '87, I thought it would be interesting to compare it with the '88 shot of #77 "Rare Bear". This was the start of the transformation of Bear by Dave Cornell and crew(and domination of the next four years) including the new, bigger cowling, and the switch to the Blackburn Beverly spinner, which was just the beginning of things to come. The three blade was just around the corner! I remember how you could sense the good things to come after years of dissappointment. Finally, the last shot is of Bob Yancey in race 101 (later named "Perestroika") and Marvin "Lefty" Gardner in #25 "Thunderbird", racing to the finish line.

[t-dub]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

(Cont.)

[t-dub]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

(still Cont.)

[Jeff E]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

Very Very cool... THanks for sharing..

J

[sparky]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

Great photos, thanks. I love that shot of "Furias". Beautiful color scheme.

Sparky

[FedexBob]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

What a year! The variety, history, super modifieds, and a homebuilt!
Thanks for the memories!
Bob

[BuckyD]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

MANY thanks t-dub for the gallery of great time capsule shots!

Reno '88 was the year when just about every one of the 'who's-who' Unlimiteds showed up. It was exciting as hell just being there amongst all those big iron hot rods (even though the gremlins worked overtime to whittle-down the entry roster of great racers).

Keep the history alive by keepin' those goldie-oldie shots comin' folks - brings back many good memories of fun times and great friends getting together.

Bucky

[t-dub]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

Thanks guys! I'm glad I could share them with all of you. You're right Bucky, the atmosphere in the pits that year was incredible! I remember the antsipation building as the week went on, looking forward to Sunday. Unfortunately as you stated, the racing gremlins had other ideas! Here's looking forward to this year, as it's shaping up to be another one for the ages! With the Bear, Sept. Fury, Dago, Strega, Dreadnought, Voodoo,( with Will flying her) Chech Mate, and now Furias joining the fold (possibly with Skip on the stick?) I cant wait for Sept. to get here! Hope to meet a bunch of you guys in the pits this year! Troy

[Avnut]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

Here's a few of my pics from 1988 that I scanned. What a great year for the races ... quite a diverse field of planes

Hope you enjoy. Ron

[Avnut]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

.. .a few more from '88.

[Avnut]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

..oh, what the heck .. a few more from '88.

[rwflyboy]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

Well '88 was a good year for the Rhino camp as I remmeber...Rhino won the silver in his first year participating at Reno.

[John H]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

Ah 88...my second air race (Hamilton in Novato was the first 4 months previous.) Went and watched Sat from the grandstands, then drove back to my dad's in Tracy and rode up with him the next day and we watched from the valley of speed. (That was exhausting doing all that driving). Steve smoked everyone sat with a 470MPH lap during the Saturday heat and I really thought that was the year that Tsunami would do it. Of course the next day Lyle was dominant after an all night repair to repair the damage of Saturdays mayhem. Such a great year, sadly I was too poor to get in the pits so I didn't see all those cool airplanes that showed up like Mr. Awesome, The Lear Stang, Strega. On the way home late night Sunday I actually pulled up to Tiger's hangar where a crew member was unloading some stuff...and asked him some questions about what happened because I was desperate for info. He was really cool as well. Hilarious...would never have to do that in this day and age. What a great memory...I missed last year but have focused all year on Reno...20th anniversary trip this year.

John

[Coug86]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

1988 was also my first year at Reno. That was the year that I let a family member talk me into leaving early on Sunday (the only day we were able to attend), thus missing Lefty's aerobatics and the Gold final. Grrrrr. My dad (whose first Reno was 1965!) and I made up for it by making it the next 11 years without a miss.

[deepsky]

Re: 25th annual 1988 "Silver Anniversery" photos

Cottonmouth was the best looking Fury there. Love that polished look!