Preview
Rare Bear, Lyle Shelton’s highly modified F8F Bearcat returns to Reno. In practice on Tuesday, the Bear broke a clamp holding an exhaust stack damaging a cylinder and other engine components. The crew was finishing up the cylinder change-out on Wednesday afternoon. |
After P-51 "Voodoo Chile" damaged its engine on Monday its crew worked all day Wednesday installing a engine bought from the Dago Red crew. The engine change was accomplished just in time to allow Voodoo to qualify late Wednesday. |
Last year’s Unlimited Gold winner, Dago Red, also had work going on under the hood on Wednesday. |
Formula One pilot Holbrook Maslen helps a youngster into the cockpit of his racer "Judy". Quite a few kids got the chance to sit in Maslen’s airplane and try to envision what it’s like to fly the pylons at Reno. |
Howard Pardue’s Sea Fury had an unusual pilot in the cockpit on Wednesday. |
Day One
The vendor area behind the grandstands was busy Thursday. Food and drinks, hats, t-shirts, and souvenirs were selling briskly. |
For a number of years, Reno’s Boy Scout Troop #1 has sold the official Reno Air Race poster. Scouts and scout leaders had a good crowd at their tent on Thursday. |
On static display is Robert Odegaard’s F2G Corsair, which raced in the 1949 National Air Races at Cleveland. The F2G was one of only a handfull – less than 20 – produced at the end of World War II with the massive Pratt and Whitney R-4360 engine. This aircraft is the only flying survivor. |
Crew members check over Riff Raff, the Sea Fury flown by Hoot Gibson after its victory in Heat 1B Bronze. |
T-6s round pylon #1 during a heat race on Thursday. |
Day Two
A biplane in one of the heats Friday snarls past a pylon on the racecourse. |
Jack Frost in Frost Bite leads Mary Dilda in Two of Hearts in the T-6 class 1A heat Friday morning. |
Ridge Runner and Critical Mass duke it out in the Unlimited Gold heat 2A on Friday afternoon. Dago Red nosed out Strega to win the heat. |
Crew members work on the main landing gear Howard Pardue’s Sea Fury following the Unlimited Silver heat 2B on Friday. |
Day Three
Unlimited contender Strega prepares for Saturday’s Unlimited Gold heat. |
The crew finished up work on Rare Bear Saturday morning, in time for the Bear to fly in the Gold heat Saturday afternoon. |
A crew member put the final polish on Bill Anders’s Bearcat Wampus Cat. The Wampus Cat took fourth in Saturday’s Bronze heat. |
Fourth And Final Day
The turnstyles were busy Sunday as the largest crowd of the week turned out to see the finals in all classes, including the Unlimited Gold race. |
Racers in the Sports class fly past the grandstands completing another lap in the race. |
The Sport class Gold race saw some action in the field, but was dominated by Dave Morss in his Lancair IV. |
T-6 class racing competition pits virtually stock airplanes against each other, providing true one-design racing at Reno. |
Two Sea Furies battle it out down low while a Mustang takes the high road in Sunday’s Unlimited Gold final at Reno. |
Bruce Lockwood savors Dago Red’s victory in the Unlimited Gold race Sunday at the 1999 National Championship Air Races at Reno. |