Evergreen Pilot John Penney Second at the 2009 Reno National Championship Air Races

Story and photos by Jim Peterson, for Your Hub, Copyright 2009

Evergreen pilot John Penney flew to a second place finish in the Unlimited Class at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada held September 16-20. He flew Rare Bear, a highly modified Grumman Bearcat fighter, at a speed of over 479.1 mph in the final race. The winner was Strega, a modified P-51D Mustang flown by Steven Hinton at 491.8 mph. Hinton, just 22 years old, took over Strega from defending champion Tiger DeStefani, who retired after last year's win. Hinton has flying in his genes, being the son of former unlimited air race champion Steve Hinton, Sr.

A four-time unlimited champion, Penney is a retired United Airlines captain who now runs a company called Mig Masters, flight testing and training people to fly privately-owned jets. Penney was slowed in this year's races by having to race with a stock engine. Last year, the Rare Bear's engine blew in the championship race, and was unrepairable. Big radial aircraft engines have gotten scarce over the years, and crew chief Dave Cornell worked hard to put together a new customized race engine, but it was not ready in time. Not content to just wait until next,year, owner Rod Lewis bought a newly prepared stock engine from a group restoring a B-29 bomber. The Rare Bear crew installed it just before the races, but without time for flight testing.

Though the engine was in new condition, its stock supercharger limited the amount of air fed to the engine's 18 cylinders, restricting horsepower. Also, a radical new oil cooling system had not been flight tested. It uses a water-methanol mixture to cool the oil reservoir by boiling off as vapor. Capacity is limited, but it reduces drag by not having a radiator that air has to flow through.

The Rare Bear's first flight with its new engine and oil cooler was early Monday morning of race week, and it had to be flown at least three hours for testing before operating at full power on the race course. The engine ran smoothly but the crew was kept busy adjusting and evaluating the oil cooler all week. Even the three preliminary races on Thursday through Saturday, before Sunday's final, were flight tests in a sense.

The team didn't have time to get the propeller balanced before qualifying, and Penney could only use about 80% power before prop vibration became a problem. Power was also limited because the anti-detonation injection (ADI) system was temporarily rerouted to act as a backup fluid supply for the oil cooler.

The Rare Bear qualified at 402.7 mph, eleventh in the field. Air racers are placed in Gold, Silver and Bronze groups according to qualifying speeds. Penney had to start racing in third position in the second-tier Silver group. The propeller was balanced, at about 1 a.m. Thursday, and in Thursday's opening Silver heat race, Penney quickly moved to the front and won at a speed of 412.2 mph. The win moved the Bear into the Gold group for the next day. Starting on the outside position in Friday's Gold heat race, the Rare Bear moved up to sixth place with a speed of 434.9 mph, still without ADI. Saturday, with the ADI operational, Penney was finally able to use full power and moved up from sixth to fourth, at 471.5 mph.

For Sunday's championship race, all systems were working smoothly. Penney started in fourth position in the line abreast formation, and soon passed Dan Martin's P-51D Ridge Runner III. Then Will Whiteside, running second, had a problem and pulled out of the race in Voodoo, another P-51D. The Rare Bear averaged 479.1 mph, fast enough to win in most years, and finished second behind Strega. Strega ran flawlessly all week, flying some laps at well over 500 mph. Hinton set a new Unlimited Gold championship final race record at 491.8 mph.

David Sterling won the Sport class Gold at 352.7 mph in his Lancair Legacy Race 8. Vince Walker of Boulder flew to a fifth place finish in that race in his Lancair Legacy Modo Mio but a judge decided he was flying too low and he was disqualified. Nick Lacy won the T-6 class Gold at 237.6 mph in Six Cat. John Zayac of Greenwood Village finished fifth in the T-6 Gold race in his SNJ-5 McDonald Racer at 226.6 mph, just 0.2 seconds out of fourth. Thom Richard won the tightly contested Formula One Gold in Invictus at 241.1 mph. Jay Jones of Buena Vista flew his Cassutt Quadnickel to sixth place in the Formula One Gold race at 222.1 mph, and Dan Peters of Longmont finished third in Formula One Bronze in Route 66 at 186.2 mph.

Retired space shuttle pilot Curt Brown won the Jet class at 513.5 mph, flying Viper, a Czech L-29 Delfin. Jon Sharp won the Super Sport Gold race in a race plane he designed, Nemesis, at a record 407.1 mph. Tom Aberle won the Biplane Gold in his modified Mong Phantom at 237.0 mph. No Colorado pilots raced in those three classes this year.

Next year's races are scheduled for September 15-19, 2010. More than fifty races are run in the five days. Up to nine airplanes at a time race around a course marked by pylons. They fly as low as 50 feet above the ground. If you like excitement, action, and airplanes, there is nothing else like this annual event anywhere in the world. More information is available at www.airrace.org.