Warbird Information Exchange

I'd like to see N79111 come back to life as #69 "Jeannie". Wasn't it 1981 that she got pranged just a week before Reno, then showed up at the 11th hour to qualify looking like a patchwork quilt, and then cleaned the field with a rookie driver named Holm? Only a thoroughbred can do something like that!

Dan

That's two different years....but amazing stories none-the-less.

In '80, on the final test flight before the team was going to leave Van Nuys to fly to Stead, the engine quit on take-off. Zeuschel bellied her into a corn field and pranged it up really good. But Wiley Sanders ponied up the bucks and Zeuschel gathered the troops and they rebuilt it. The rest of the race is storybook. Arriving one minute before the 'deadline', and going on to win on Sunday. And remember...that airplane was BEAT UP. Lots of stock parts on the wing and fuselage, including a bone-stock scoop and propeller. Qualified sixth, and didn't win either of the two qualifying heats. The fact that Mac won with a new world record speed on Sunday was absolutely amazing.

In '81, Mac was undergoing treatment for lung cancer and wasn't cleared to fly. Zeuschel got Skip to fly Jeannie at the last minute. Skip had done the flight testing on Z's F-86 the year before, so Z was pretty confident in his flying ability. Having never flown a Mustang before (let alone a modified race Mustang), he got his required hours in, passed his test, and went out and dominated looking like he had been doing it every day of his life--new qualifying record, and a win on Sunday only 2 mph off of Mac's record speed the year before.

Good stuff. One of my all-time favorite planes.

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You're quite right - my mistake - it was McClain that flew it that year. It was the following year that Holm won. I remember being just ill later on when she turned up in that hideous race # X "Spectre" paint job.