John Crocker

[sandramore]

Re: John Crocker

What a great thread. I miss John...

Wish I had my slides scanned as it was a great shot.

I have that same issue. Loads of slides. At one point I'd considered renting a slide scanner. If I ever get back to working and can afford it, I'll let you know, Leo. Maybe we can get them all done at once.

[wolfee]

Re: John Crocker

I'm not at all sure how I just wound up reading this thread, but it's wonderful!

I must have missed it when originally posted, an unfortunate byproduct of the way the board messages are delivered to me. I get a copy of every message posted in any forum on the system via email. Because of the volume of messages at times, I sometimes wind up simply "speed reading" while looking for malicious/unsettling/conflict style within posted content. In-turn, this can cause me to skip the actual significance within the content, not really reading *what* the content is during this subjective review process.

I'm missing some good stuff!

Lol I just got to page 3 of this thread when I looked at the date.. I do not remember seeing this thread in the past. But awesome stuff here guys!

Neal and Bucky, Thanks for the great photos, and the stories that go with them.

Wolfee

[wingman]

Re: John Crocker

I just finished rereading this thread myself -- some good stuff. I got to talking to young Steven at Reno this year, and we came up with a very attractive trade involving a collection of photos of his Dad's remarkable Racing career. If there's any interest, I can post some of the scans as I get them done, and we could have a Steve Hinton thread...

Neal

[CRJpilot]

Re: John Crocker

Interest?

Ok I'll say it, pleeeeeeeeeease!

Don

[sandramore]

Re: John Crocker

Yes, please.

[wolfee]

Re: John Crocker

Oh that would be very cool Neal!!!

Personally, I would love to see your work (and Bucky's) put into book form. You have so much history in photos and even more in your memory of the Air Races. I bet you could do very well selling it at the 50th in 2013.

Maybe you all, Wayne, Bucky, Scotty, Brigetta(sp?), Big Jim and others could all get together and make it happen. It would be an amazing book.

[Big_Jim]

Re: John Crocker

Just as a side-note...the Jim Larsen-designed canopy isn't the only thing that was passed on from Foxy Lady/Sumthin' Else to other racers. The wing fillets are currently on Strega (in a trimmed-down form), and a little bit even lives on with ol' Air Biscuit....which makes me smile every time I see these.

[Lon Moer]

Re: John Crocker

Bumping this from the Archives because I had an association with both of these great men.

In 1979 I was on the crew for Dan Martin's Ridge Runner and we shared a pit box with the #6 team (an adventure I'll tell whenever I get the slides scanned ) and I was standing on the RR wing watching when John won. It was an awesome follow-up to the previous fri's outrageous battle and we were all going crazy in the pits - I especially remember Sylvia Sweeney being almost hysterical
And then the Red Baron flew by barking and puking and everybody in the pits went quiet and watched.

After a couple years with the RR team, I started working for Bob Love when he was still restoring the white Mustang and crewing for Bob when he raced Hovey's Mk IV.

I'm pretty sure this picture is from 1983, with those new white "Bernie's Bo" shirts. We had brown "Team #2" shirts in '82.
- I'm leaning on the prop.

[Shawn Aro]

Re: John Crocker

Here is John"s A-26 Invader taken by my dad.

Shawn

[Warbird5]

Re: John Crocker

Hello Neal,

Glad to see that you are well and still with us (ROTFLMAO).

I can't thank you enough my friend for starting this wonderful thread. The memories flood back......Those were damn good times. Damn good.

I've been blessed to have found the Reno Air Races in 1980 and their great almost hidden secret. What some of you may ask? You don't know? It's the people! Yes the machines are cool, but it's the people who maintain/crew them and the pilots and their family's who fly and pour money into them. When you go to Reno make time to get to know the crews and pilots for that's where the good times are.

For those of you who may not know I started crewing in 1980 on Jack Hovey's P-51 flown by the late great Bob Love. As the posts have so aptly stated he was a great, great guy and one heck of a fighter pilot. My first P51 ride was in the his Bernies Bo at Madera in 1983. I miss him every day. As is miss the equally great John Crocker. Now John was a class act. Worked hard with little resources and achieved a great deal. It was through John I met Mike Bogue, (Super Mike who could look at a part and tell you what it was used on, wow!) Ted Curiel, Jerry Ruddy, Neal Nurmi, Bucky, Pat LeMay, The Dragon Lady, Kerch, Mike Frank, Tom Camp, Cindy and Steve Johnson, Sam Davis, Wayne Cook, and many others who are too numerous to name. The good times really rolled after. One I remember and I'm still reminded of by Karen Hinton was the time Camp, Bogue, Wayne, yours truly cooked up breakfast in the pits out of a rented travel trailer. OJ, bacon, eggs, sausage and hot coffee. Or the time Camp rented a slurpy machine and mixed up killer margaritas and stood back and watched the fun after he put a "free drinks" sign on it (LOL). Or the time we tried to fix Jon's leaky prop blade which was posted in a picture by Neal a few years back. Who could forgert the time John ate live gold fish! Yep he did. Yep damn good times.

As Neal has said I've worked on/crewed for Bob (Love), John (Crocker), and Tom Camp. This covers the period from 1980 through 2012 (the last year Race 2 entered). Funny, Hovey's P-51 raced with the number 2 and so did Camps FM2. I've missed a couple of races due to being in the military, but you know the crew of Ted Curiel, Mike Frank, Wayne Cook and myself may have been together the longest of any unlimited crew. With Tom Camp's racers alone we've been together 24 years!

A special shout to Dave and his family. Dave is Nicholas' father and we meet at Reno in the pits about ten or so years ago when a young Nicholas was in a wheel hair as he had difficultly walking due to his legs. Now fast forward and after surgery Nick is starting to crew for various unlimiteds. Yeah right now he's limited to cleaning the planes, but I don't think it will be long before he gets down and dirty in the oil and hydraulic fluid. He'll always be a member of Air Biscuit's crew.

I missed you Nurmi and your wife this year. It's just not the same if you two are not on the ramp, on the course taking the great photos you have stashed away of all the "good time" we been a part of. I relented and went this year after shipping 2013. Planning on going for 2015 if the races are held. What about you. BTW I'm loosing my hair. (LOL)

Warbird Willie

Our good friend Willie (Warbird 5) sent Bucky and me a message asking for a thread on John Crocker, who he crewed for for several years, and a thread on Bob Love. Many here know Willie these days as crew on Tom Camp's Race #2 Wildcat.

Here's a start. 1976 was my first Reno. A friend of mine dragged me up there (I think mostly because I was the only photog he knew with a telephoto lens so I could take pictures for him to use in paintings, but that's another story). There was this lovely airplane there -- listed as a P-51D but looking like no Mustang I'd ever heard of. It was beautiful! Didn't sound like any Mustang I'd ever heard, either.

Not only that, but that airplane finished in first place in the Gold, too! It made quite an impression on a young photographer...

[Warbird5]

Re: John Crocker

Afternoon,

I told you! Those were damn good times.

I think you've got the years correct as I still have the brown Race Team Two shirt, but it doesn't fit any more. I sill have the white satin Team Two jacket for 85.

That's me on the ground between Dave (on the left) and Bob's daughter Malinda. It was cold that day. (LOL)

Warbird Willie

Bumping this from the Archives because I had an association with both of these great men.

In 1979 I was on the crew for Dan Martin's Ridge Runner and we shared a pit box with the #6 team (an adventure I'll tell whenever I get the slides scanned ) and I was standing on the RR wing watching when John won. It was an awesome follow-up to the previous fri's outrageous battle and we were all going crazy in the pits - I especially remember Sylvia Sweeney being almost hysterical
And then the Red Baron flew by barking and puking and everybody in the pits went quiet and watched.

After a couple years with the RR team, I started working for Bob Love when he was still restoring the white Mustang and crewing for Bob when he raced Hovey's Mk IV.

I'm pretty sure this picture is from 1983, with those new white "Bernie's Bo" shirts. We had brown "Team #2" shirts in '82.
- I'm leaning on the prop.

[Lon Moer]

Re: John Crocker

BTW I'm loosing my hair. (LOL)

<>

I think you've got the years correct as I still have the brown Race Team Two shirt, but it doesn't fit any more.
<>

Well, I still have my hair, although not as much as in that picture (!), its just all grey now.
And I don't fit into anything I wore back then.

[Shawn Aro]

Re: John Crocker

Shawn

[marke]

Re: John Crocker

Wow, wow, wow,

Neal you not only filled my request, you put out a volume of extremely high quality words to go with the photos.

I can't thank you and the others that have added to the thread.

I've been fortunate to have been with giants. Giants of the sport of Unlimited Air Racing. When I say giants that includes the mechanics, engine builders, crew members, photographers and klingons that have made the sport what it is today.

The photographers are yourself, BuckyD and Phil Wallick. If it weren't for you guys and a few others there would be no comprehensive photo record of the modern era of Unlimited Air Racing at Reno.

The old saying is always true; "a picture is worth a thousand words". We see the words that your pictures have caused to come forth.

I've had the pleasure to have been at the right place and the right time to see John, Bob (Love), Neal, Tiger, Tommy, Rick, Ron, Mac, Skip, Bob (Yancy), Steve, Steve O, John (Hinton), Danny, Krech, Dwight, Mike (Bogue), Teddy, Wayne, Mike', Jack and Silvia, Cindy, Bill (Harrison) Rick, (Rutterman) and many more. These names are Reno.

The names belonging to those that have passed on to "blue skies" gave time money, blood, sweat and tears to "fly low, fly fast and turn left". The names that are still under the "blue skies" and still "vertical" try to carry on. Fly Fast, Fly Low, and Turn Left.

Those of you who read the postings on this sight who have never been to the "Big Show" as Bob Love called it need to get off the couch come September and see it in person....No hear it in person. There is no sound like the sound of the pack of Gold Final Unlimiteds echoing off the low hills, down the "Valley of Speed" full tilt coming to pylon eight. Cause the sound and its sound wave has to be experienced in person.

Reno....September....See Ya!


Thank You Neal.

Willie

I have not been to reno since attending in the 80's and miss being out theire. I can still remember the sounds of those Unlimied Racers going down the Chute. One year I drove my Datsun 510 from Fort Worth Texas and found a great place up on a hill that the racers went over. My car broke down up there, clutch went out. Had the Mechanic from the Gas Station at Stead tow me back. But I will never forget the sights and sounds of being close to the action with the other spectators out there. When the Gold Race started I almost could feel what a enemy soldier on the battle field experienced when those racers were heading toward me. It really gave me the chills. It was so exciting being out there. thanks for the wonderful excellent photos Neal. John Crocker was always one of my favorite racers flying Sumthin Else. I love reading the this forum on Aafo on racing at Reno. Keeps me up with all the Reno Action. I used to alot of art of the racers too. I have to get back to Reno again I miss it.