Warbird Information Exchange

The world is as it should be again, at least in Reno. Tiger Destefani in Strega, wins the unlimited championship, I think this is his eighth or so. Dan Martin in Dago Red was 2nd. So the mighty Merlin still had a few surprises left for all those guys running bomber engines. Mike Brown in the Fury was 3rd. I think the Bear had been in hibernation all winter and just couldn't shake off the long sleep.
The victory could not have gone to anyone more deserving. For the last 20 years or more, almost every winner had to get by Strega for the gold, and that's been Tiger. Both the Bear and Dago, fast as they are, have been with different people for different years.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

http://aafo.com/racing/2008/stevo/
With all the hu-bub about it, I was under the impression that
Hinton Jr was the new Stegra Driver

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Don't touch my junk!!

Stevo flew Sparky (Brant & Steve Seghetti's stock P-51) this year and did a nice job at it. Strega may be in the cards for him for next year.

Stevo's is the Strega driver next year...

Lynn

Strega's winning average speed was 483 mph, which is good, but I don't know what the record is. Dago was 9 mph slower and the Fury 10 mph slower than Tiger.
So the MARVELOUS MIGHTY MAGIC MERLIN, often overlooked, rule again in the world of speed. I must admit that the Wright 3350s have a pretty good sound when running all out.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

Bill, I believe that's pronounced MALICIOUS METAL-MAKING MERLIN.

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

I woke up Saturday morning and decided to jumpseat to Reno to see my first air race. The Unlimited Gold race on Sunday was awesome! Wish Rare Bear would have hung in for the whole race but glad for the Strega team and Tiger Destafani. Would like to see them allow T-33s and T-2 in the jet class again. Sat in the notoriously ruckus section 3 and hung in the Sanders pits afterward and got to meet Dennis Sanders. Great folks! Chatted with Steve Hinton and "Capt" Eddie Kurdziel among many others in the hotel bar. All in all a great experience!

Thanks all for a lively update! With all the commotion over Ike and its effects on family, friends and Lone Star, today at work I went DUH-Reno!!!?? I totally forgot. More pix please for us unfortunate peons who couldnt see it first hand.
I hope everyone who flew out had a safe flight.
Doug

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."

Race record for the Unlimiteds was 487.938 mph by Skip Holm in Dago Red at the 2003 championships.

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Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.

I'm still jazzed about the win...It was great. I've never seen any of Tiger's other Reno wins. There was one in the bag in 99, but going down the backstretch he had to pull out. darn! Also haven't hung around the pits after the race in three years and that was cool. A fantastic weekend.


John

I was wondering....

Was Gary flying in this year's race ???

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Michel C
Thousands of a/c pics at Passion-Aviation

Just had the cheap camera along (traveling light), but here's the starting lineup for Sunday's Gold race:



And the parade out. Dago Red had the Pole



September Fury was #2



Strega in #3



Rare Bear in #4 (waving his Section 3 flag)



Czech Mate in #5



Spirit of TX in #6



Nelson Ezell's Fury in #7



Howard Pardue's Bearcat in #8



Sawbones in #9



No real telephoto lens, so the race shots are really forgettable. Much better ones are posted elsewhere on this site.

Will endeavor to do better next year

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Chris

Nope. Airplane broke.

Gary

Ah, sorry to read that Gary...

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Michel C
Thousands of a/c pics at Passion-Aviation