Some quick notes on Thursday morning’s heat racing from a bright and thankfully clear Reno.
Formula 1 dished up a tasty little knife fight in a phone booth to get things rolling. Even in the absence of fast runners Endeavor (duff mechanicals of some sort under the cowl and out for the week) and the now-retired Lowell Slater (Fraed Naught) there were three quick runners to make a race of it.
Justin Meaders might have done the most to mix things up with a new Catto prop that seems to have preserved his excellent top speed while providing notably faster acceleration. That allowed him to take the battle to Justin Phillipson’s No Strings Attached Shoestring, the pair making a contest of first place well into mid-race. Meaders was ultimately able to set a high, clear line to take advantage of his speed and finish first, while Phillipson didn’t let Meadres relax to take second. Kent Jackson was third in his Cassutt 111-M.
Notable was top qualifier Jim Jordan in last place during the heat. His 244 mph qualifying speed was no match for the amount of traffic in this heat which saw a wide mix of aircraft speeds and thus presented an exciting-to-watch but difficult to fly lapping demonstration. Every pilot caught in the race gaggle cited traffic as a real challenge as everyone was trying pass everyone else. Sounds like it was rush hour in Milan, but it was capitol sport for those watching.
In Biplane the story was Alan Hoover seemed to have found some speed since yesterday, sufficient to make it a close run thing all race with winner Jeff Lo. The rest of the field was evenly spaced; Lo’s winning speed was 179 mph.
