USRA President’s Report
June 2003

Kansas Race

Everybody's back from the successful Kansas race and hopefully Loren, Martha, and their crew have had a chance to catch their breath. We managed to get 5 rounds in, but Mother Nature and Murphy did their best to keep us on the ground!

Thursday was setup and tech inspection day, and everyone did a good job of adapting to the new rules regarding battery sizes and engine tethers. Only a couple of guys were running around looking for steel cable! Dick Sizer came down with two entries, but ended up having some chest pains out at the airport. Thankfully Matt Weibe took them seriously enough to call for medical help because Dick just barely made it to the hospital before needing some serious attention. Dick ended up getting some angioplasty and a stent inserted, and the last word we heard was he was going to be fine. Thursday night the City of El Dorado put on a dinner for us at their civic center complete with their local High School chorale group. The city and the mayor are great hosts and never miss an opportunity to make us feel welcome whenever we come to race in El Dorado. They're ready to have us back next year, and we're ready to go!

Friday was the first day of racing and I kicked off the weekend with a free-flight demo of a GR-7. The landing wasn't as pretty as the loops it did by itself! Round 1 was a bit slow and arduous with a rash of timing equipment problems and the typical 1st round sluggish pace. The competitors and race officials did adapt very well to the 300' distance between the flight line and the timing/scoring station, and my thanks to everyone for their cooperation and effort in making this change relatively smooth. Scott Hanbury won the very first heat of Formula-1GT, but the Unlimiteds took a beating with Daniel Goldberg, Bob Moore, and myself breaking airplanes and dropping out of the event. Biplane was also hit hard with Fred Sargent and John Creagh both dropping out of the event with damaged birds.

On Saturday the rains came just as we were rolling out to the line. The rain lasted over an hour, and put us behind schedule. Then the pylon equipment didn't check out right after the rain quit and they needed some attention and dry air. While the pylons were being attended to, the lunch show went on to entertain the good sized crowd. Jeff Powell brought out his big bipe for a nice aerobatic show while we dried off and prepared for battle. The pylons finally came back to life and the race officials and competitors started cranking out the heats at a fast pace in an attempt to get us back on schedule.

In AT-6, Archie Snider, Dave Presta, and Sam Stephens locked into a great fight and all three dove to the finish line to get the win. Unfortunately, Sam didn't leave enough altitude and hit the runway hard, destroying his plane. In F-1, Fred French, Charlie Powell, Jeff Powell, Shawn Everson and John Creagh were looking strong, but Creagh damaged his bird in a landing mishap. Also in the hunt in F-1 was newcomer John Lockwood flying Steve Stonacek's beautiful new Proud Bird. Experimental looked very interesting with Ed Rankin's Polen Special flown by Jeff Powell winning a heat race and being every bit as fast as Archie and Fred Sattler's Lancairs. The F-1GT folks were having way too much fun and the races were very close, and the Dominator pilots kept on leaving the flight line with big grins and shaky hands! By the end of Saturday we had completed 3 ½ rounds before we had to pack up and run to the banquet. Loren put together a great dinner for us at the civic center with BBQ beef, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, and more! David Wise treated us to another great slide show of pictures that he had taken on Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday we started racing early and finished rounds 4 and 5 before another rain shower moved in. Thankfully it was brief, albeit very wet. Trophy race lineups were set and when the weather cleared it was time to go for the gold. Due to the attrition, Terry Williams was the only bipe remaining and elected to stand down in the final, and was awarded the win based on points. F-1GT was a real shootout with Hanbury and Denny Baker swapping the lead back and forth with Larry "Pooh" Sutherland lurking close by. Baker edged Hanbury at the line by less than the length of an airplane! AT-6 saw Archie Snider get the jump on Dave Presta and Hanbury, and then hold them off for Archie's first ever T-6 Gold Trophy win! Unlimited had Randy Hill as the only competitor airworthy at the end of 5 heats, but trailing Archie Snider in points. This meant Randy had to fly the trophy race to get the win. Sadly, Randy lost the airplane shortly after takeoff and their was no race so Loren had to award the Unlimited prizes according to points with Archie 1st and Randy 2nd. The Experimental final saw Jeff Powell take the early lead, but Fred Sattler eventually got around him to take the win. F-1 was a real barn burner with Jeff Powell and French battling tooth and nail, and a repaired Creagh 1 ½ seconds behind them and closing. Shawn Everson and Charlie Powell stayed close too until late in the race. French ended up edging out Powell whose cut moved him back to third behind Creagh. The Dominators then flew their final, and what I saw was fast and furious with John Lockwood edging out Mark Zeal and Matt Weibe.

Everybody then ducked into the hangar for the awards presentations. Loren handed out the trophies and the checks, and Pete Bergstrom from Horizon handed out the Zenoah engines. Loren was able to scrimp and save and hand out some nice checks to all of the classes, and of course Tom Easterday and CRT were the sponsors for the cash purse in F-1. I don't have the breakdown for every place, but I know that 1st place in F-1 (Fred French) received $1200 and 2nd place (John Creagh) got $800!

The Zenoah engine distribution worked out great with Denny Baker getting a GT-80 for his win in F-1GT, and Kevan Avery picking up one for the F-1GT raffle. Archie picked up a GT-80 for his win in T-6 and Presta picked up a G-62 for 2nd. Diego Lopez picked up a GT-80 for the F-1 raffle, as did Randy Hill in the combined Bipe, Experimental, Unlimited raffle. The last G-62 went to 1st place in Dominator, John Lockwood. All in all, even the wet weather couldn't keep Loren and Martha from having another great event. My thanks to them and their crew, and also to Ralph Cunningham for his help with post-race engine inspections.

Ohio!!!

Folks, it's just around the corner, make your plans right now. Event organizer Tony Husak is pulling out all the stops, but he needs your early entries now so he can make his plans. There are almost as many parties as heat races planned so don't miss out. Discounts are available on rental cars, and golf cart and tent rental reservations are needed soon. To sweeten the pot even more, the corn-on-the-cob dinner on Saturday night will feature a "Tri-meat slow roasted feast"! I'm not sure what that means, but it's probably a good thing! Make your plans now….info is on the website at www.usrainfo.org .

That's it for this month….here's the preliminary results from Ohio. Keep your eye on the website for detailed statistics.

Ken McSpadden

Planes Over El Dorado 2003