Lyle has finished his final race

[JET1]

thanks for the memories Lyle

an air racing ICON through thick and thin!

[FlyKidChris]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

CAVU forever to a true legend. Lyle was the first unlimited pilot I ever had the chance to speak to and he seemed to have all the time I wanted to take, a real gentleman.

My prayers are with him and his family.

[ladysue]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

Our prayers are with you John & Joyce. Lyle was one of a kind and will be greatly missed by all.
We had some great times & Lyle set the records. His spirit will always live.

Pete & Sue
Support & Crew

[EastCoastFan]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family & countless friends that truly knew Lyle. He was an Icon of the sport & walked with the swagger of John Wayne-- True Grit-- through and through. He was a joy to watch and one to admire for his sheer determination to "make it happen" no matter the cost-- and it did cost.

I enjoyed reading Dell Rourk's book "Racing For the Gold"-- it gave keen insight into the man and the airplane he loved so very much. Very glad the book went to print prior to Lyle's passing.

John--thank you for the update. We are all saddened by the news. Please continue to post and share. Your knowledge and stories of air racing days gone by are never lost here.

Godspeed Lyle Shelton! Thank You!

[marada mx3]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

The man that is responsible for creating my favorite racer has flown west. I will never forget Lyle Shelton, even though I did not get the pleasure of a personal meet. Blue skies and tail winds forever!
Tommy

[MRussell]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

Lyle, thank you for inspiring me first as a child and again as an adult. I've never else witnessed a show like you enjoyed putting on at Reno. Thank you.

[deepsky]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

Prays are happening for his family, friends, and all those that he touched through his sport. God Bless!

[John H]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

My Pic of Lyle's last Reno appearance, 2006. Very sorry to hear the news. Condolences to family and friends. They don't make em like that anymore.

[Race 29]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

John, I know what your going through, and I feel for you. My Dad brought me to the air races for the first time. It was something great that we shared. He fell in love with the Rare Bear and the more I read about Lyle, the more I knew how much he was like my Dad. He was a Rare Bear fan until the day he passed. Just like everyone else has said on this post, Prayers are on the way! I hope your Dad knew that he inspired a ton of people, and they are Praying for him now!

Race 29

[FuryFan]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

Thank You Lyle for your many contributions to our lives. My sincerest condolences, John, to you and yours.

Kevin

[Rigby]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

God speed Lyle.
Next time I am in a thunderstorm, I will know that it is Lyle, and all the other air racers who proceeded him, going flat out in the heavens.

[BEARCLAW777]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

i think in tribute to him i am going to make a jacket showing the different paint jobs of the bear on the back

what color scheme or name did you like on the bear able cat or any of the others?

[team zipper]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

GOD SPEED LYLE...FROM THE FIRST DAY WE FLEW TOGETHER AT TWA, YOU WERE A FRIEND...TAILWINDS BUDDY....

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

Everybody,
Man the things that have been posted are truly cool, I turned the cellphone off for the day yesterday evening until this afternoon, I just wanted to collect my thoughts. I was doing some chores this morning and checked the clock to see if it was time to go down to visit with Lyle, suddenly remebering that it wasn't something I could do anymore, Had a good cry and went on after a while. I was over at my folks house here in Bakersfield yesterday on their back patio, I heard a Merlin engine overhead and stepped out from under the patio cover and there was Strega overhead. Guess he was up there looking for his old friend. Brad, DJ, Randy Haskin and Bill Pearce were in town last night, they were nice enough to go and have a couple margaritas and some chips and salsa with My mom and I last night. My Mother really enjoyed sitting there and hearing stories about my dad. Thanks guys she slept better last night after we sat down with them and after we read these posts from everybody. I commented on the fact that I didn't call for blue skies or CAVU in my post, because Lyle didn't care about that he just wanted to go fly.


On a personal note after racing with Lyle, and then going on to do engines with Dwight for myself, I was ready to be done. If I didn't have an 11 year old reason to priortize my time, I'd have liked to go racing with Tiger, LD, Nixon, and Stevo. Lyle was really interested in Stevo and I gave him daily reports from my friends in Reno last year at how they were doing. There is one more autographed "Going for the Gold" on Lyle's desk and it is inscribed to Stevo, Lyle had hoped to get together with him but health and scheduling last winter prevented that from happening. Lyle was a tough act to follow, Dave Cornell once told me that after he had gone racing with other people, "he had "underestimated the fact that Lyle truly spent every waking minute thinking about how to go faster next year, he was obsessed with the thought, it started at the moment Lyle got out of the plane and ended on Gold Sunday the following year, when the pace plane released the racers. Only to start over again when he landed" Lyle was a racing monster, a calculated, thinking obsessed monster. He happened to be the greatest influence in my life, And a damn good Grandad afterall to my daughter. Thanks for letting me spill some of my thoughts. There are a lot good Rare Bear crew members up there with Lyle now, I'm sure that when Lyle got there they started the discussions, time to go boys! Mac McClain and Zeuschel, Bob Love and Da' Doc, well,.. now they have a Bearcat racer to race against in the great beyond...... Thanks for the prayers.
John

[billlavonne]

Re: Lyle has finished his final race

John--I've been holding off replying to you because I have so many stories that I could share with whoever wanted to hear them, but space won't allow that. I will share one though.
The last time we spent -one on one- for any length of time was when he retired from TWA and I moved him from St. Louis to Reno. It wasn't only a moving situation, but also a geoligy field day -trip!! He had this map of the mountains west of Denver and on one occasion he was looking at one range and said those are 100 million years old and these over here are a lot younger they are only 50 million years old!!! That is what the whole trip was. We stopped at a rock shop and he bought a pick hammer and would want to stop along the road so he could pick at the rocks along the road!!
I had to laugh, here was probably the greatest race pilot the sport has ever known and he was out there breaking up rocks with his little hammer.
But it was a great memory, took 4 days to drive from St. Louis to Reno.

Bill Kelly