Racing Over Rantoul
By Ben Lanterman
During the warm summer days of June 22–25, 2006, Rantoul, Illinois, hosted one of the Unlimited Scale Racing Association (USRA) 2006 World Championship Series races. You can find the locations and dates of all the races in the series at www.usrainfo.org.
Hospitality and thanks
While at Rantoul, my wife Bonnie and I were treated very kindly by several people from Horizon Hobby. Special thanks to:
- Kim Rix for her gracious and enthusiastic help during the race.
- Steve Goodreau, Horizon’s publicity and media planner, for making us feel at home.
- Steve Hale, Horizon photographer, for his friendliness and great company; for three days we shared a bale of hay in the observer-helper’s bunker.
Bonnie and I were delighted by their friendliness and offers of help. If Horizon Hobby wanted us to leave with a warm feeling, they succeeded. The company has many fine people working for it, and you should give its products a look.
A return to Giant Scale racing
Many years ago, when cameras used film, I attended one of the early Giant Scale racing events and still have enlarged photos from that event on my basement hobby-room wall. The airplanes still look great, but I had forgotten the sounds and feelings of speed that are central to the memory of the race. Realizing that Rantoul was just a short day's drive from my home in Saint Charles, Missouri, and now that I have converted to digital photography, I decided to take another look at this part of our great sport.
If you get a chance to go to one of these races and don't, you will have missed one of the most exciting events aeromodeling has to offer. Giant Scale races are the closest thing to IndyCar racing our sport provides. If you like nice people, beautiful airplanes, the noise of big engines running flat out with no mufflers, and speed (and, deep down, who doesn't?), these races are for you.
Event and venue
Rantoul is home to the Rantoul National Aviation Center and Airport Facility, formerly Chanute Air Force Base. The location is ideal for these races: a huge hangar for safely storing assembled airplanes and equipment at night, a gigantic concrete apron for parking, tents, and trailers, and a full-scale runway for takeoffs and landings with no rough weeds or rocks.
Race direction and officials
The race was ably directed by Peter Bergstrom, product development manager for JR radios and engines at Horizon Hobby. With his wealth of modeling experience and his steady guidance, the contest proceeded smoothly over the three days. I don't think I ever saw Peter without a smile on his face that weekend; like most people involved in the event, he was clearly having fun.
Holly Hollingsworth served as the race's line director. His knowledge of racing operations allowed him to run an efficient and safe flightline. When all engines are running on a Giant Scale flightline, great care must be taken at all times. All fliers, helpers, and photographers on the flightline need to be able to look to one person for direction, and Holly filled that role with zero fuss. I would feel safer standing next to a pilot's station during this race than at many flying fields I have visited.
There were many other personnel whose work was less visible but absolutely necessary and much appreciated by the racers. It takes good people to be spotters for each racer at each pylon, to work the timing equipment, and to set the hay bales for safety.
The racing
The long parade of beautifully finished airplanes brought out for each race was awe-inspiring. The only exception was Tom Keating's Unlimited primer-coated model; the finish was smooth and slippery, a result of an unfortunate case of Working-for-a-Living Syndrome cutting into modeling time. Tom finished third in Unlimited.
The sound and fury of five Unlimited-class airplanes diving toward the start line and turning into the first pylon turn is gripping. Ken McSpadden's super-fast GR-7, just an orange flash as it passed the start–finish line, rests firmly in my memory.
The closeness of the racing in Rantoul kept me on the edge of my seat. Yet the whole time the competitors' smiles and friendliness toward everyone reminded me that they were having a lot of fun.
The sound of Fred French's engine as his Unlimited-class-winning NA-50 stormed down the front straight was absolutely incredible. Fred receiving a kiss from his wife Lynda at the end of each race put the icing on the cake—nice people setting a great example of togetherness.
Sponsors
I would be remiss not to mention the sponsors of this race, which included:
- Zenoah engines
- JR radios
- Horizon Hobby
- USRA Racing
- Fly RC magazine
- California Research Tabulations, Inc.
- APC propellers
- R/CATS systems
- Tru-Turn spinners
- Great Planes Manufacturing
The sponsors provided hardware and generous cash prizes to the race winners. Cash prizes add considerably to the zest of racing for these pilots—especially if they receive one.
Photos and contact
I can present only a few photos with this article. The only "problem" with our digital-photography age is how easy it is to take many pictures. Over the next several weeks I will finish reviewing and posting 800–1,000 photos to my photo website: http://public.fotki.com/benlanterman. Please drop by and visit. If you own one of the airplanes in the photos, please feel free to contact me.
Ben Lanterman [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
