Saturday morning was fairly slow. I fueled Race 39 bright and early and I was tired of answering the age-old question, “What kind of airplane is this?” so I walked over to the grandstands with my friends. What a ZOO! There were people everywhere, as expected, but it was still alarming. I bought a necklace then headed to the top of the grandstands in Section 3. I have some friends who dwell there and I thought it’d be a good spot to watch Jeff race the Mustang. Jeff won Unlimited Bronze and Sport Gold later in the day.
Jeff was a little slow to start the Glasair because he left his headset adaptor in the Mustang. Our mechanic Darryl took off running to grab it and I booked it to the Sport pits to find a backup. I called Neil Wischer and he sent Sport racer Skylor Piper to me, who offered up his helmet with G/A plugs, same as Jeff. Darryl arrived back at the airplane shortly after I did so Jeff just used his own equipment. Time for him to buy another dang helmet and just leave it in the P-51!
Sean VanHatten and Tom McNerney had an awesome race on Saturday. They’re competing for third and fourth place—very fitting since their race numbers are actually three and four, respectively. Their lap times were both 352 and some change.
There was a Sport Class banquet in the evening so Darryl and I attended and kicked our feet up. I can take as many photos and videos as I want but they will never fully capture the true feeling of being here. I’m really gonna miss this place. Reality it starting to set in—we’re not coming back to Reno.
