Yeah, I know we're A-L-L supposed to be frothing
over Football now; Hut-Hut, SPIKE! Err, 15 yards for Encroachment! Uhm, like if
IMS can have the Rolling Stones play their 'lil stadium. And Bristol Motor
Speedway's gonna host Virginia Tech v Tennessee's 'lil 'Ol College Football
game,
then what's next for Mother Speedway?
Once again, I'm marching; Uhm, your pullin' left
again Tomaso; Hya! Yuhs know about marching to your own tune, right Y'all? As know
I'm in the minority, but I really don't give a Rat's patooey 'bout the dearth
'O Pigskin's bein' tossed round right now...
Especially since
we're still in the middle 'O a title chase for Formula 1; Chirp-Chirp, Bueller?
Although I'm startin' to think Nico Rosberg's finally got a chance at
dethroning Hamilton...
Since after all it was Thy OLD-est IndyCar
Blogger, nee Geo. Phillips of Oilpressure.com fame who alerted Mwah to the fact
that Mother Speedway would be hosting a new event this year, albeit 'Wayback nearly
a year ago now, in December, 2015; CRIKEYS!
As Y'all know the
Drill here in Nofendersville, when time has a nasty habit of speeding past your
visually impaired Word Butcher. Or disappearing completely in Thy No Fenders
Wormhole Vortex; SHUHZAMM! Not to mention, why can't I see the text on Thy
Monitor like I-T was before?
; now I'll confess,
that when I think of Air Racing, I immediately think of the Reno Air Races, for
which rookie Yank' Challenger pilot Kevin Coleman gave an interesting
comparison of the differences between the Red Bull Air Racing championship vs.
Reno's on a recent Autosport
Radio Show interview.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKfL6CJJe6c
Noting how Red Bull's utilizes (3D) three
dimensional flying, while Reno's features multiple Aeroplanes just racing round
in circles, relatively horizontally flat circles, albeit at much faster speeds
- nearly double or more!
As it seems a long time ago now, that I read;
Err listened to the following story upon my NFB Newsline for The Blind
telephone service, Wayback in Spring, remember Dat Y'all? Air &
Space Magazine's April-May issue of selected stories
featuring a pair of highly unusual custom built Aeroplane racers chasing the ultimate
speed record.
As the Dynamic Duo featured in the article
above were the John R. Sandberg's Tsunami and Bob Pond’s Pond
Racer.
As it's always funny to Mwah,
reading about history afterwards - when you've lived thru I-T, which is exactly
the case for the Pond Racer, which I fondly remember being a "Clean
Sheet" design utilizing automobile racing engines unproven in aircraft
application, to power its composite twin-engine design.
As the company in Questione was
Electramotive, builders of the all conquering IMSA GTP Nissan GTP ZXT that
Geoff Brabham drove to four consecutive championships from 1988-91. Becoming
the first racecar to decimate the once almighty IMSA Porsche 962 Panzerwagon playground...
As I recall reading about these
same Nissan VG30 three litre twin-turbo 1,000bhp motors being selected for the
Pond Racer in my yearly subscription to Ontrack magazine, albeit featuring very
little detail on the overall project's outcome. As remember, these were
automotive engines being adapted for an unintended purpose, hence only
producing 600bhp at sustained high RPM's.
Hence, this apparent lack 'O information
now makes sense to Mwah, some thirty years on, since reportedly the late Mr.
Pond wasn't exactly helpful during the project's relatively short lifespan,
which sadly ended in futility with the death of its popular pilot Rick Brickert in 1993, when crash landing during
that year's Reno Air Races.
Although Mr. Pond's vision for
his Pond Racer was noble, as it was intended to replace the aging, overly valuable
historic WWII machines being destroyed during air racing events.
As the P-38 inspired twin-tail
Aeroplane came out of the very respected Scaled Composites company of Burt
rutan, making it's Reno Air Races debut in September, 1991.
.But the racer peaking my curiosity
more is that Tsunami, for which was hoping to ride a shock wave to success over
capturing the three-kilometer (3Km) absolute speed record, after having made its
maiden flight thirty years ago on August 17, 1986.
Also depending heavily upon
composites, this P-51 inspired unlimited class Aeroplane was built around Mr.
Sandberg's expertise. As his JRS Enterprises specialized in rebuilding vintage
piston power aircraft engines - having massaged Tsunami's powerplant, a Rolls
Royce Merlin twin-stage Supercharged V-12 beast to a peak of 3,800bhp!
Alas, the Aeroplane was in a
constant state of modification at the owners behest, by its Lockheed
"skunk Works" designers, before ultimately one of the countless modifications
led to founder John Sandberg's death when ferrying Tsunami to his Minnesota
home, crashing in South Dakota when landing on September 25, 1991.
Interestingly, Steve Hinton, a renowned
Air Race pilot, who amongst multiple Unlimited (class) victories also set a 3Km
speed record of 499mph in '79 aboard the highly modified RB-51 Red Barron P-51
Mustang that stood for ten years, before the all conquering Rare Bear' broke
the record en route to becoming a thorn in Tsunami's wake.
Hinton, as test pilot had the
opportunity of flying both aircraft, not to mention being given the Pond Racer
programme housed at his Chino, CA Fighter Rebuilders shop after the project was
acrimoniously "Yanked" from Scale Composites hands.
As A-L-L of this ultimate piston
powered propeller speed chatter, or should I-T be CHAF? Makes today's Red Bull
Air Racers seemingly a tad sedate, albeit slicing the Air-gates at a modest
fifty feet off the deck at 230+ miles per hour isn't anything' to scoff about!
Karmically, when visiting Thy
local library for some new readin' material this past September, "Tall
Ruth," as she warned me one day, proclaiming she's Six-foot Three-inches
tall; Aye Karumba! Said I should really check out the book her father was
raving about, ironically being titled The Wright
Brothers by David McCullough.
Not to mention
that I learned that Wilbur Wright debuted the brothers Wright Flyer at a Horse
track on the outskirts of some 'lil 'Ol town named Le Mans! For its European
debut over a century ago, but that's another story for a later day...
