The Pylon Place: Air Racers Keeping Busy in the Off-Season…
By Marilyn Dash
While we wait for Air Racing Season to begin again, several of our Racers are keeping busy in the off-season.
Setting Records…
Phil Goforth in Knotty Girl (Tim Adams)Last year, Elliott Seguin and his team put together the Mojave Experimental Fly-In to showcase experimental aviation, maybe go for a few records and then hang out with a bunch of cool people for the weekend.
Andy Chiavetta and his Team Chia together with Elliot, Lynn Farnsworth, and the Super Legacy tentatively* broke two Speed Records and two Time to Climb Records over the Mojave weekend. The 3,000 Meter Time to Climb was completed in under two minutes. That’s a 1,500 meters per minute climb! (For those who don’t believe in the metric system that’s more 4,900 feet per minute).
Racing fans know that Lynn has been racing his Super Legacy in the Sport Class for many years, and Elliot was part of John Sharp’s Nemesis Team before moving over to the Formula 1 Class with his own Wasabi Racing.
Elliot Seguin and his partner in crime, Jen Whaley. (Tim Adams)Andy Chiavetta has been instrumental in developing some fast Sport Class Racers. I first remember meeting him while he was working with Darryl Greenamyer and his Race #33. He was also a key figure behind getting a new canopy on Strega in record time during the races in 2013.
Later during the Mojave weekend, it was Klaus Savier’s turn. Klaus is another Sport Class Racer – and he is the test pilot for his company, Lightspeed Engineering. His team included Jenny Tackabury and Rich Jankowski. Between them, they demolished three World Records. The 100 km and 500 km in the C-1A category using the Delaminator Varieze. The 2,000 km in C-1B also fell using the Determinator LongEZ.
Another award went to Justin and Josh Phillipson for Design/Build of Justin’s newest racer No Strings Attached. Justin has been racing in the IF1 class for years using another aircraft and is fulfilling his dream of building his own racer – starting with a basic Shoestring Project about two years ago.
* I should mention that all records are considered tentative until verified and certified by the FIA.
International Formula 1 goes International again in 2015
Slingshot, I mean Second Wind with Mike Mundell (Tim Adams)The Air Race 1 World Cup Series has expanded their schedule to include three races this year. Several familiar names from the Reno Air Races are on the official list of participants.
Thom Richard of Precious Metal fame has recently acquired Brian Reberry’s racer – now called Hot Stuff (previously known as September Fate). He will be onboard for the races.
Long time IF1 racers, Philip Goforth in Knotty Girl, Steve Temple in Madness, Jay Jones in Quadnickel, and Tom Watkins in everyone’s favorite, Pooder – will be showing their stuff.
Other IF1 Reno racers, including Stephen “SPH” Partridge-Hicks in Miss USA, Dave Holmgren in Last Lap Player, Mike Mundell in Second Wind (aka Slingshot), Jim Jordan in Miss Min, and Kent Cassels in Margaret June will join them.
The first race will be in Tunisia in June. The aircraft have already been packed up and are somewhere in transit. Currently, 18 racers from six countries will represent Air Racing in the three-location 2015 Series. Tunisia, Spain and the final stop in Reno, Nev. will make for an exciting year of flying for these guys!
I can’t wait to hear the stories. Wish I could join you guys!
Until next time… Fly Low and Fast…
Special thanks this month to Tim Adams for the use of his wonderful photography!
