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By 1978, Jimmie and I were beginning to get a handle on the F1 game and it began to come together fairly well. While our times weren't improving, our consistancy was getting better to the point where we won a lot of heat races by not getting cuts. We were able to race against some of the big name California racers and hold our own. I remember one particular race at Whittier Narrows where we raced Terry Prather. Of course, Terry was one of biggest names in pylon racing at the time, and was customizing probably 90% of the X40 engines in use by racers throughout the USA , including ourselves. We beat him in a heads-up race by just a few feet. It was a great thrill for new guys like us. Back then it was Supertigre X40's vs. K&B 6.5's. Most of the X40's were being reworked by Terry, and the good K&B's were by Clarence Lee, who worked with K&B for many years and had a hand in the designs of many of their engines. The horsepower was fairly equal but the ST's were far better in terms of longevity. Like today, some of the fliers had the mistaken opinion that certain guys had "special" engines, bigger displacement, or some secret that kept them going fast and winning all the races. I must admit that for the first couple of years that I raced, I shared the same opinion. I finally came to realize that the reason some guys were better and faster than others was EXPERIENCE, and not some "speed secret" only known to certain privileged individuals. You had to have flying skills, prop carving skills and know how to operate engines with lots of nitro to be successful. It didn't hurt to have a great caller either. Only a few fliers were consistantly at the top of the F1 game since it was much tougher than any of today's pylon racing events. Not because of piloting skill, but because of all the other factors involved in a winning combination. We raced with the Ruble boys from Visalia , California . Their father Bob came up with the idea for a Tettra type fuel tank long before Tettra was even in business. It was never completely successful as the inner bag was always an issue. The first ones used condoms for the fuel bag, and later balloons, but we never had a strong enough inner bag so the idea was abandoned. Gary Hover and Len Ledson were great racers as well. Gary was instrumental in putting on all the great races at San Luis Obispo in the late 70's thru the '80's. Gary 's engineering background was a huge help in making Formula 1 airplanes go very fast and ultimately led him to design the famous Samurai Kaze, likely the best F1 airplane in the history of the event. It still holds the F1 record at 1:03 and change. Richard Verano owns it. The AMA NATS in Lake Charles , Louisiana was a high point . Bob Smith, girlfriend Pam and I drove from California in an old Chevy station wagon loaded to the gills with all kinds of airplanes we hauled for other fliers. It was a wild NATS with some pretty hard partying every night (we were all a little younger then), and it made the flying and the stifling heat of the swamps just that much worse. I won't name any names, but one very well known flier had two rooms at the hotel. One room was for working on airplanes, and one for sleep and such. The airplane room was complete with spray equipment in the bathroom (well, you needed the exhaust fan for spraying, right?) and epoxy and sanding dust all over the beds, nightstands, dresser and carpet. Every time the maid showed up they would give her $20 and tell her to leave some fresh towels. Cleaning the room was out of the question. I'm sure the hotel had to replace just about everything in that room when the NATS was done. The word "trashed" doesn't adequately describe what it was at the end of a week. Wish I had a photo. Ron Schorr won that year. I was second, and Bob Smith was third. For those of you that never knew Ron, I can truthfully say that I never met anyone who worked so hard at having the nicest and fastest airplanes at the contest. Ron was never a great flier, but he had some airplanes that were absolutely the fastest things on the planet. He did a lot of his own engine work, helped by Clarence Lee, and even made some internals for the K&B's he ran in an attempt to keep them together. Ron winning the NATS that year certainly made up for the many failures he'd experienced in racing. The win was well deserved and kept him at at it for many years thereafter. Ron was also the perennial favorite to win the Best Finish award at any given NATS or any other big race for that matter. He even had a car sized professional spray booth in his backyard just to paint his F1 airplanes. Talk about dedication. There will never be another one like him.
The 1978 NMPRA Championship Race was held in Texas just outside Dallas . Bob Ruble arranged for us to fly back in a Beech King Air that a friend of his owned. It was a very cool trip and a lot less hassle than the airlines. The Ruble Family, Jim Kimbro, Jim's soon to be bride Janet Ruble, and I rode back in style. Just over the New Mexico/Texas border, we talked with Gary and Len, who were 15000 feet below us in the same Cardinal that we flew back to Florida in the previous year. We still beat them into Love Field by an hour. I had purchased a built Little Toni from Jim Gager as I was out of airplanes due to some late season disasters. It was nicely built (I thought!) and test flew well. On the first day of the contest with stout X40 in the nose, the wing folded. Obviously, Jim had built it for a whole lot less horsepower. To this day, whenever I run into Jim, I call him "Explosion Builder". The blowup likely cost me the contest, and I ended up sixth, one place out of the money. Just like '77 Here are some photos from that race. John McDermott's hair is all grey now, probably caused by all the bleach he used on it in the seventies! (Sorry, John) |
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