Reno National Championship"Drag Races"

[knot4u]

Re: Reno National Championship"Drag Races"

Big Jim, just wondering where a 3K event could be held, alt/temp would be important. Maybe Tonopah? Las Vegas NM sounds like it was filled to capacity when Lyle and the other sponsored aircraft and crew showed up to set the current record. Not sure where the million or the other financing would come from but this would be an event I'd like to see.

[Lockheed Bob]

Re: Reno National Championship"Drag Races"

Maybe Wendover,NV if they had about 20 more motels/hotels & restaurants.

[GHOSTRIDER]

Re: Reno National Championship"Drag Races"

I WAS FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE WITNESED THE MOJAVE,CA
AIR RACES IN 78' AND 79' WHEN I WAS ONLY 6-7 YEARS OLD. AND I
DISTINCTLY REMEMBER THAT THERE WERE "DRAG RACES" BETWEEN T-6
RACERS LIKE MISS EVERYTHING AND GOTCHA.
THEY TOOK OFF SIDE BY SIDE AT THE DROP OF A GREEN FLAG, CHALLENGED FOR THE INSIDE POSITION OVER AN EXPANDED T-6 COARSE, AND THE FIRST ONE AROUND TO THE CHECKERS WON.
ASK RALPH RINA OR DENNIS BUHEN ABOUT IT AND THEY CAN PROBABLY
ELABORATE ON IT.
CHEERS-GHOST

[a4gturn]

Re: Reno National Championship"Drag Races"

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions.

My whole premise was based on pylon racing being banned. I would never want to see it end.
Wayne, thanks for getting it and realizing that some kind of racing would be better than nothing.
There is no substitute for pylon racing, but having something workable is something to think about.

[V1670]

Re: Reno National Championship"Drag Races"

Ok...what about going to the opposite direction? An endurance race.
I was too poor back in the days of Clay Lacy and his DC-7 and would've liked to have seen that. Get some DC-7's, Connies, maybe a A-26 or B-25's. Mustangs,Bears and the like could compete with pit-stops and such. Granted, it'd be like seeing passes at an air-show, but with the pit-stops and landing/take-offs and lapping/un-lapping the competitors, it might be kinda interesting. Say 1000 miles.... Speed would be important; but so would endurance. Go FAST, but not so fast ya bust a motor or over-stress an airframe/control surface, etc.

Whatd'ya think?

[Big_Jim]

Re: Reno National Championship"Drag Races"

Ghostrider: Both the T-6's and the Unlimiteds participated in the drags at Mojave. Standing flag start, take-off, one lap around the course. I don't recall them ever being particularly fast, but the Air Race Management folks tried to match guys up relative to qualifying speed...and quite honestly nobod really tried that hard because there was minimal prize money and you still had to 'save the equipment' for the actual race.

V-1670: Pretty much anyone who participated in the two 1000 mile endurance races (Mojave '70 and San Diego '71) said that it was just too hard on the pilots. Even when they shortened the last distance race to 1000km at Mojave '71, they still said it was brutal. I don't think there is a place you COULD do a race like that today. It was a 15 mile course at Mojave and a 10 mile course at San Diego. At Mojave they were able to have the refuelling pits at the intersection of the two main runways (halfway down the primary 12,000 foot runway), and there was a taxiway that they were able to take off on to rejoin the course through the infield. That way you had a one-way flow: land-refuel-take-off, all in a south-to-north direction. You just don't have that kind of room to do that at Reno. And Mojave is out as a race venue. And the bigger problem was environmental...they had half a dozen trucks doing 'hot' refuelling with props turning all around and fuel spilling everywhere. You could 'kind of' get away with that 40 years ago, but it wouldn't fly today.