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T

he 51st Reno National Championship

Air Races at Stead Field in Nevada,

USA, will be remembered for quite

some time, and not just for the final

Unlimited race. On Saturday during quali-

fying for pole positions we saw one of the

tightest Unlimited finishes ever, but with

one disqualified.

Bob Button’s crew took their second Gold

win in his heavily modified P-51D Mustang

named Voodoo, flown by Steve Hinton Jr. at

an average lap speed of 462.926 mph. This

was Hinton’s sixth consecutive win, the last

two years in Voodoo, and the previous four

years in Bill “Tiger” Destefani’s P-51D

Strega. Second place was followed closely at

458.856 mph by Sherman Smoot’s Czech

Mate the heavily modified Yak-11, a best-

ever finish for the pilot and team, partially

in credit to the Grumman Bearcat Rare

Bear flown by Stewart Dawson pulling out

after the first lap due to an engine issue.

While the spectators and fans of Precious

Metal, a Griffon-powered P-51 with counter

rotating props thought that pilot and owner

Thom Richard had won third place, a crowd

line course violation disqualified him, and

Dennis Sanders in fourth place was bumped

up to third in the Sanders Aeronautics’ Sea

Fury Dreadnought, a T. MK 20 powered by

a Pratt and Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major en-

gine at 419 mph. Curt Brown in a Sea Fury

Sawbones received fourth place, while Ko-

rey Wells in another Sanders Aeronautics’

Sea Fury 924. This was the first time that

Sanders Aeronautics had all three of their

Sea Furies racing in the Gold Unlimited

race, unfortunately for Mark Watt in Argo-

naut – an engine issue took him out of the

race right behind Rare Bear.

Earlier in the week, one of the expected

top contenders, Robert “Hoot” Gibson fly-

ing Sea Fury 232, lost an engine while

qualifying but landed safely. The big race

that will be remembered was on Saturday

during the Gold Heat #3 which will decide

the pilots’ starting positions for Sunday’s

main race. With Voodoo leading the entire

time, Bill Destefani flying Strega started

from the back of the field and moved up to

third on the first lap. He continued, work-

ing his way past Rare Bear staying right on

Hinton’s tail up through the last lap. At the

finish pylon, Destefani who flew a high line,

dived down, making for a photo-finish with

Hinton, and then ‘maydayed’ with a lost cyl-

inder. After safely landing, Destefani was

disqualified for flying too high (above the

FAA mandated safety barrier) and was un-

able to race the next day due to the lost en-

gine. On Sunday morning, seven-time Gold

winner Destefani announced his retire-

ment from air racing.

The Jet Class had four types participating

• Aero Vodochody L-29’s, L-39’s, and a sole
  Siai Machetti S211 and an TS-11 Iskra, total-
  ling 15 aircraft for the races. The Jet Gold
  races were won by L-39’s with Phil Fogg of
  Oregon taking first in his racer named Fast
  Company at 495 mph. Behind him was Rick
  Vandam of Reno, in American Spirit at 485
  mph with third going to Australian Mark
  Pracy in True Blue (up from 7th place in
  2013). In the Silver race, Lachie Onslow of
  Armidale, NSW took second place with his
  TS-11 Iskra Hot Section, and Charlie Camill-
  eri of Bathurst NSW took 4th in his L-29 Miss
  Independance. Roger Cain

R e n o 2 014

A Race That Will Be Remembered

Running a tight race, four T-6’s

come around for pylon 8.

Aero Vodochody L-39s in the Jet Class lined up on the ramp

as the Gold Race contenders run up in the background.

[All pictur

es Roger Cain]

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