USRA Parker Wrap-up!

[LeadingEdge]

Article Written By: Ken McSpadden & Craig Greening
Go Fast Junkies!


USRA Parker Wrap-Up!

The Unlimited Scale Racing Association finished up their racing season in the beautiful desert city of Parker, Arizona on October 27th thru the 29th. 6 Biplanes, 7 T-6s, 24 F-1GTs, 11 F-1s, 13 Unlimiteds, and 8 Dominators brought the total field to 69 entries. This was the largest turnout for a Giant Scale race in some time and it is apparent that the recent magazine coverage as well as the continued support of sponsors such as Zenoah, JR, Horizon Hobbies, CRT/Tom Easterday, Mike Johnson Ford, and Jack Thomas have been instrumental in the re-birth and growth of this sport. Competitors came from across the continental U.S. as well as Hawaii, with international participants from Japan and Australia too. The Parker race is organized and promoted by Denny and Barbara Baker with the help of the Blue Water Resort and Casino and the Colorado River Indian Tribes. The purse for this year’s race exceeded $11,000.

On Thursday the 26th, teams began arriving and setting up their pits. Tech. inspections, radio range checks and test flights soon followed. New airplanes must be issued a logbook and measured to insure that they meet minimums established by the USRA rules. Airplanes that have already passed this inspection must still pass a safety inspection that includes checking structural integrity, radio gear installation, and engine mounting. After that inspection, each aircraft must pass a stringent radio range check with the engine running at full throttle. Some participants elected to take some test flights for trim and fuel mixture adjustment. Mike McConville, the points leader in the F-1 class going into the race, had the misfortune of losing his aircraft on his test flight after a mysterious tail waggle on the exit of pylon one. This appeared to be a crushing blow to Mike’s championship hopes, but the weekend wasn’t over yet.

Friday began with a special rookie pilot briefing where USRA race procedures were explained to the newbies in a little more detail. A full briefing for all pilots followed shortly afterward and then it was time to go racing! The Dominators are essentially large Quickee 500 type aircraft with Moki 2.1 engines, and they took to the course first. Many first time racers start with a Dominator to get a handle on USRA race procedures with a slower, easy-to-fly, and relatively inexpensive model. Mike Stevenson and Mike Tallman both notched 1st round wins. The Biplanes were next up. The Bipe class has been absent in recent years due to lack of interest, but is starting to show signs of life again. The class uses a stock engine on ignition with a displacement no bigger than 81cc (4.8ci). Tim Sparks was looking good with his Sundancer racer, and John Lockwood with his Mong was going well too. Other racers like Ray “Big Dog” Thompson, Mike Moyers, and Dan Egelhoff elected to fly the Great Planes Christen Eagle/Pitts ARF with some modifications to strengthen the airframe for racing.

The AT-6 class was a unique blend of airframes from the past including kits from RacePro, GT-Aero, and DLD. The first round gave everybody a great show and it was quickly apparent that all of these racers would be tightly bunched all weekend. Scott Hanbury, Jose Macias, and John Lockwood set the standard in the early races.

The F-1GT class has really ignited the growth of Giant Scale racing the past few years. These racers combine the easy flying F-1 airframes with a stock Zenoah GT-80 running race supplied fuel and prop. Racers are rewarded for building light and clean airframes and for flying them smoothly and consistently. Early racing saw a mixture of rookies and GT vets having good success. Joe Silva, Joseph Zimmerman, and Jack Thomas of Bandit racing put on a good show with their GR7 racers. Travis Flynn from the Q-40/FAI ranks demonstrated that his flying skill was definitely going to transfer to the bigger models by grabbing 2nd in his heat with a new Video Cassutt after a close fought battle with Archie Snider’s Polecat. Tim Lime showed a deft touch with the sticks, as did Peter Goldsmith with his Kelly, Craig Greening with his GR7 and Mark Zeal with his Polecat. Racing veteran Archie Snider bagged an early win with his Polecat as did David Guera. Our Japanese contingent had a mixed showing with Kazuhiko Yamazaki finishing with a pair of 4th place finishes but Kozo Oi badly damaging his Kelly on takeoff. That was only the start of the carnage however. Scott Hanbury, flying his new GR-7 beer-wagon, had a light mid-air with someone in his heat and barely managed to get the airplane back on the ground, ending up with extensive damage to the wing. But that was still just the beginning. In round 2, Mark Zeal and Craig Greening came together in spectacular fashion on the exit of pylon two and both airplanes were a complete write-off. Then, Larry Sutherland and Jake Hanbury met in the start dive and we had another balsa and foam confetti shower. But it still wasn’t over! Peter Goldsmith then hit a runway light on landing and destroyed his wing putting him out of the race. That meant that four out of the top five in F-1GT points were out of the race…or were they?
The F-1 class continues to get more and more competitive. These racers are F-1 airframes like the GT class, but with no restrictions on engines other than the 81cc displacement limit. Jeff Powell was looking like the man to beat, with other notables such as his Dad Charlie Powell and his GR7, John Creagh and his GR7, Tom Easterday with his borrowed-from-Jeff-Powell GR7, Fred Sattler with his Rankin AR-6, Jerry Bradley with his GR7, and engine guru Scott Baker and his Polecat. Chris Justus with his GR7 and Fred Sargent with his GR7 were serving notice that they were gunning for the top spot too and Diego Lopez was experimenting with a new ZDZ powerplant in his Kelly that showed a lot of promise…But there was one more lurking at the back of the field. Mike McConville managed to borrow an F-1GT airplane from Peter Goldsmith and re-enter the race. This last minute entry meant he would miss the first round, but be able to collect points towards the World Championship. It looked like the title would go down to the wire between him and Jerry Bradley. Early round victories by Scott Baker, John Creagh, Jerry Bradley, Jeff Powell, and Tom Easterday showed that it would be anybody’s race with John having early bragging rights for quickest time with a 1:26.

The Unlimited Class is always exciting with 100 inch wingspan racers modeled after the Unlimited Class racers at Reno. The only engine restrictions are that the engine must weigh less than 14 lbs. Fred French with his Aerrow 200 powered NA-50 has been the benchmark all year, but Dave Smith and his Herbrandson 280 powered Miss Ashley II wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Tom Keating with a Stilletto motivated by a DA150 and Peter Goldsmith and his DA150 Ashley were also ready to make a run at the top. Tom Easterday’s Aerrow 200 Ashley II and Keith Koeppel with his DA150 NA50 were right in the mix as well. A surprise for the field was the competitiveness of Mike Johnson’s two Bearcats with Herbrandson 280 power flown by Doug Killebrew and Jay Replogle. Tim Sparks and his Aerrow 200 Sea Fury and Dan Egelhoff and his Aerrow 200 Ashley also came ready to rumble. Early heats saw Dave, Fred, Peter, and Tom grab wins with Dave and Fred both carding times of 1:17.

At the end of Friday’s racing, we drug ourselves over to the Hotel/Casino for a quick shower and then it was off to the cantina at the river’s edge for more fun and games. Plenty of drinks were served including Denny Baker’s world famous “Softball Juice”, and more than a couple of people topped that with a chili-cheese dog. Tom Easterday brought his drag racing Christmas tree, and elimination charts were soon drawn up and the competition began. We had a men’s bracket and a women’s bracket with Marty Treat winning on the men’s side and Kelley Hartranft winning the women’s. They went head to head and Kelley edged Marty by a couple 1000ths of a second! Next up was the rubber band powered balsa glider competition out on the amphitheater grass and after a few unauthorized tune-up flights our Australian mate Gus Greening took the top prize. Then a quarter tossing contest broke out (as they often do at our races) and the winner’s names have been lost to history after that last glass of softball juice! Back to the Casino for some more fun and games before turning in and getting ready for Saturday.

Juan from FlyingGiants.com showed up on Saturday and we put him right to work getting some video. The weather was warm but the racing was hot. A plan was hatched at the cantina on Friday night to get Scott Hanbury back in the air, and the Speed Demons were out in force early on Saturday with a replacement wing from Tom Easterday. The Demon crew had to take a wing straight from the mold, install the servo mounts, servos, linkages, cut out the ailerons, and drill the hold-down boltholes to get Scott in the air. But that wasn’t enough of a challenge, so the Demons decided to change the engine too, installing Pete Goldsmith’s extra motor! Scott needed a solid three rounds worth of points to grab the championship and wasn’t about to quit now! The wing finally went on, the airplane re-inspected, and the gas tank filled just minutes before the next round. Scott then went out and won his heat with a very respectable 1:49

In Biplane, Tim Sparks banged up his front-running Sundancer and had to drop out of the race as John Lockwood carded two more heat wins. In T-6, Scott Hanbury, Jose Macias and Dennis Friesel topped the charts. In F-1GT, Zimmerman, Lime, Lockwood, Snider, Tallman and Williams scored big with heat wins. The heats in F-1GT seemed to get closer and closer as the weekend progressed and the fight for the top 5 spots that would go to the trophy race was really getting hot. F-1 was crazy fast! Easterday, Charlie Powell, Jeff Powell, and Baker all won heats. Tom’s time came in at a 1:27, Jeff’s at a 1:28, and Scott had a 1:26 with a cut…not much of a gap between these guys! Unlimited was getting hotter too. French, Easterday, Egelhoff, Sparks, Koeppel and Smith all pulled down a 1st. Fast Freddie was quickest with a 1:15 with Dave Smith right behind at 1:18. At the end of the day, in the 4th round of the F-1GT class, Scott Hanbury scored a 2nd place in his heat to inch closer to the F-1GT championship when bad luck struck again and a radio lockout on final approach destroyed the new beerwagon…a tough blow for Scott with the championship within his grasp. Meanwhile in F-1, Mike McConville was quietly collecting third and fourth place finishes. He started the weekend 46 points ahead of Jerry Bradley, lost 20 of those in the first heat when Mike didn’t race and Jerry scored a win. Mike then broke even in the 2nd round when both he and Jerry took 3rd in their heats. In the third round Mike lost another 4 points when Jerry finished 2nd and Mike placed 3rd. With the lead now down to just 22 points Mike and Jerry went head to head in the 4th round and Jerry picked up a DNF when his engine flamed out and Mike scraped together a 4th to move him 30 points ahead of Bradley. Suddenly it was settled…with only one round left and only 20 points available to Jerry, the Championship was decided and Mike McConville had scratched and clawed his way to the top with the slowest airplane in the class!

We all made our way back to the Blue Water Saturday night for our race banquet. The banquet is a GSR tradition and Denny and Barbara Baker reserve one of the large banquet rooms at the hotel with a prime rib buffet and no-host bar. All of the races on the USRA schedule have a similar event where we can all get together and relive the weekend, the previous year, and the good-ol’-days together. We all stuffed ourselves, drank too much, and watched a great slide show with photos taken during the week by ace photographer Mike Brown. Then Denny and Barbara raffled off some great door prizes including RCATs glow igniters, a GT-80 donated by our Japanese friends, and even some cash from the Baker bunch. Then we all went to bed early to get ready for Sunday….NOT!….We went to the bar and had a few more drinks, played some blackjack, and rang a few slot machines! Heck, by this time we had crashed everything…. ! Good times!

One more round on Sunday before the Trophy races and there was still some business to do. Mike Tallman was quietly racking up the points in F-1GT and with the last round in the books he had sewn up the F-1GT championship with a very clean and consistent run. Unlimited was decided way before that as Fred French and his NA50 nearly had straight wins for the entire year. A well-earned championship was his reward! The Trophy races were pretty much set for Biplane and T-6, but things weren’t decided yet in F-1, Unlimited, and F-1GT….Especially F-1GT. When the dust settled, the lineups for the finals went like this.

Dominator; Stevenson, Tallman, Moyers, Friesel, and Lockwood.
Biplane; Lockwood, Moyers, Egelhoff, and Oscar Slaughter.
T-6; Hanbury, Lockwood, Macias, Friesel, and Ed Gurule.
F-1 GT Gold; Snider, Zimmerman, Tallman, Thomas and Lockwood.
F-1 GT Silver; Flynn, Lime, Williams, Macias, and Friesel.
F-1 Gold; Baker, Charlie Powell, Jeff Powell, Easterday and Creagh
Unlimited; Smith, Easterday, Sparks, French and Egelhoff


Dominators got the trophy races started, all got away cleanly and it was soon clear that John Lockwood and Mike Moyers were going to be the ones to beat. The other three Mikes were not too far back, but it was Lockwood first across the line with Moyers only a tenth of a second behind. Unfortunately for Mike he had two pylon cuts while chasing down John and the penalty time relegated him to 4th, with Tallman and Stevenson 2nd and 3rd, Friesel 5th. John won a trophy and a Zenoah GT-80 for his efforts, he is also living testament to the fact that you do not have to be named Mike to fly in a Dominator Gold race. Mike Tallman took a trophy and a Moki 2.10 for second, Mike Stevenson a trophy and a Dominator kit for third.

Biplanes saw the four-man final reduced to three when Oscar Slaughter lost his airplane on takeoff. The remaining three flew a clean race with no cuts, John Lockwood across the line first, then Dan Egelhoff and Mike Moyers. John won another GT-80 and a check for $400, Dan a check for $300, Mike $200 and Oscar received a trophy.

Four T-6’s got away and as expected Scott Hanbury was the one to beat, but Jose Macias was on his game and giving Scott a run for his money. Scott flew low and smooth and can be tough to catch when out front, Jose ended up with three pylon cuts and a zero as a result. Scott was scored two cuts but had enough of a margin over Dennis Friesel and John Lockwood that he took the win and a check for $400. After the cuts were assessed Dennis’ clean run scored him second for a $300 payout, Jose third for $200 and John Lockwood fourth for $100.

Due to the large number of entries, the F-1GT class runs a Silver final for those finishing sixth through tenth in the points after completion of the heats. New pilots Travis Flynn and Tim Lime both made the Silver in their first giant scale race, each flying borrowed long wing Cassutts. These two had a close battle in the last heat race and were expected to do the same in the final. Jose Macias didn’t make the start and was replaced by first alternate Martin Treat with his Kelly. In a repeat of the last heat race Travis and Tim broke away from the group and had an entertaining battle, with the lead up for grabs at every turn. Both of them flew low and tight, with line boss Holly Hollingworth asking them to fly little higher on more than one occasion. The two Cassutts crossed the line first and second, but cuts ended up being their undoing, Travis taking three to go from first to fifth, and Tim with two was scored second. USRA President Martin Treat crossed the line fourth but had flown cut-free and took the win, as well as now being the first alternate for the GT Gold. Terry Williams finished third flying Tim Sparks Polecat, Dennis Friesel fourth also flying a Polecat. All received trophies.

The F-1GT Gold lineup had a little different look than expected on Thursday, but five great pilots and their airplanes took to the course to do battle. Archie Snider with his Polecat and Joseph Zimmerman flying a GR7 proved to be the class of the field, jumping out front and flying a very close race. A little further back Mike Tallman, John Lockwood and Jack Thomas were fighting it out for third, eventually finishing third through fifth in that order. Up front it was Archie across the line two tenths in front of Joseph, but a pylon cut swapped the order and Joseph was the Gold winner. He collected a trophy and a GT-80 from series sponsor Zenoah. Remaining pilots received trophies.

Big things were expected in the F1 Gold race and nobody was disappointed. Five very evenly matched racers lined up, all flying GR-7’s with the exception of Scott Baker flying a Polecat. Scott had proved through the heat races that he had the stuff to run with the GR7’s, and so it remained in the Gold final. Five airplanes crossed the start line almost as one and stayed that way for two laps before settling into two separate groups, with positions changing each lap. All around the course airplanes could be seen making adjustments for position and clearance, all pilots doing a great job avoiding contact and staying on the racing line. Scott worked his way to the lead and crossed first in what can only be described as an exhilarating race, only to find out that due to a technical issue the race would be rerun. Pilots were informed and given time to check their airplanes over and ready them to race again.
Second time around was just as fast and furious, with nobody giving an inch. Again the pack crossed the line as a group, everybody jockeying for position over the first couple of laps until things stretched out a little. Jeff Powell and Scott Baker were the front runners, Scott running down Jeff on the third lap and staying out front to take a deserved win. Thanks to CRT and Tom Easterday who sponsor both the F1 and Unlimited series, Scott received a check for $2500 plus a GT-80 for the win. In his first race in over a year, John Creagh took second and a check for $1200. Tom Easterday took $800 for third, Charlie Powell $600 for fourth and Jeff Powell a $400 check for fifth. Interestingly there were no cuts by any pilots in the race, a testament to their focus when racing so closely with the adrenaline flowing.

Five thundering Unlimiteds got airborne, but there was still a claim unfilled by the powers that decide mid-air collisions, and they had their eye on Tom Easterday and Tim Sparks. In what was close to a head-on collision Tom’s Miss Ashley and Tim’s Sea Fury came together in spectacular fashion. It’ll take a forensic scientist to figure out what’s what in some of that wreckage. And it still wasn’t over, Dan Egelhoff’s Mustang ejected its Aerrow 200 on the backside of the course, the airframe pancaking earthward in it’s now very tailheavy state. The engine took a slightly faster route.
That left Fred French with his blazing fast Aerrow 200 powered NA-50 to duke it out with Dave Smith’s Herbie powered Ashley in a two-man final. Dave had displacement on his side, but quite a bit more airframe weight which is definitely a leveler. Dave crossed the start line slightly ahead of Fred, and what is Dave’s fastest Ashley to date did a great job running with Fred. He flew a tight course to try and make up the turn radius advantage that Fred has, and held him off for a couple of laps before Fred squeaked by. Dave didn’t give up and Fred wasn’t able to build much of a lead, crossing the finish line just four tenths of a second ahead of Dave. Fred collected a check for $2500, and Dave $1200. A condition of Tom’s sponsorship of the Gold race is that you have to start the race to receive the prize money. In this case three of the five did not make the start (and unfortunately too late in the race to allow alternates to launch), but Tom did not withdraw the remaining funds, rather splitting it amongst all the Unlimited entrants to the tune of $150 apiece.

Trophy race competitors take their airplanes to tech inspection after all is done to make sure airplanes conform to class rules, especially minimum weights and in the case of the F-1GT class, unmodified engines. One of the five GT racers is randomly drawn to have their engine removed and dismantled for internal inspection.

This being the final race of the season class champions are announced and awarded in addition to the above mentioned trophy race winners.

Biplane: John Lockwood
AT-6: Scott Hanbury
F-1GT: Mike Tallman
F-1: Mike McConville
Unlimited: Fred French

Rookie of the Year: Craig Greening


Parker was a great finish to the racing season, even with the higher than usual casualty count. Across the country race pilots are already planning for next year, figuring out how to go faster and turn tighter. There’s plenty of time to join in the excitement, so get building and we’ll see you in Rantoul in June!

[madmax]

Ken & Craig! Thanks soo much for the great perspective and wrapup on this event! I'm currently editing 3 hours of video down for the site, and will have it posted Friday. Our good friend Michael Brown is also in the process of upload a ton of pics to boot. We're STOKED! to have you guys here, and to be given the opprotunity to get the word out on this uber-exciting sector of the hobby. THANKS AGAIN!!!

MD

[bigadd43]

how did peter goldsmith go was he in it.. if so go the aussie

[RobertV]

The results for each heat of each class plus the season championship standings for Pete and everyone else can be found in post #5 of this post:

http://www.flyinggiants.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8760

[Tom K]

Thanks guys for the post!

Great picture of Tom's Miss A.

[KennyMac]

A quick correction...We have Scott Hanbury listed as winning the AT-6 championship, but since there was only one event this year that fielded AT-6s, there was no championship. Scott did win the Gold trophy race though.

Our bipe champion this year won a biplane kit from Great Planes, a Tru-turn spinner, a championship cup and $300 in cash. The Unlimited, F-1, and F-1GT champ each won a Tru-turn spinner, Hangar 9 Extra 300 kit, championship cup and $600 in cash.

Looking forward to seeing the pictures...thanks for the space Max!

KMac

[CRG]

If I heard correctly Great Planes is doing their part to support the race scene by making available some of the ARF biplanes in ARC form with cowls in primer to allow some individuality in finish for the racing scene. Also makes it much easier to beef up structure if required.

[bigadd43]

so when are we going to see the video i can not wait...

[madmax]

We got absolutely slammed this week after being gone for 10 days from the TAS, apologies guys, still playing catchup in a major way. Videos are coming! We have some good flying on tape, and some shots of the scenery for the folks who were not able to attend. I can't tell you how happy I am to find that I will be able to attend both events next year now that the scheduling has separated the two.

Thanks again guys, we're all STOKED on having the USRA team bring us this killer sector of the hobby!

Max

[bigadd43]

hay can not wait i loved the tas video what next on the events list???? madmax

[MartinT]

Great article Kenny and Craig!

[Team JR]

Hey guys.. nice report! I feel a little slighted to be honest... I don't think I've: a) recieved one such report yet and b) never seen one as detailed.... Something's wrong with that Sir McSpadden! You to Craig...
However, it was very nicely done...