RADIO CONTROL PYLON RACING - 2003/07

July 2003 115
AAAAAND THEY’RE OFF! As I write
this, the first buds are appearing on the trees
and the first advertising circulars for
window-cleaning services are appearing on
garage doors here in Suburbia. But in sunny
Phoenix, Arizona, the first of the annual JR
Gold Cup Series has already come and
gone. It’s time to wake up and smell the
nitro!
Organized by the National Miniature
Pylon Racing Association (NMPRA) and
sponsored by JR Remote Control, Horizon
Hobby Distributors, and PowerMaster fuels,
in addition to local hobby shops and hosting
clubs, the Gold Cup Series is established as
the “gold standard” on the high-zoot Radio
Control (RC) Pylon circuit. It’s second only
to the Nationals in terms of prestige, and it is
somewhat more accessible because four to six
races are held each year at various locations
across the country. The rule formula is
Quarter 40, AMA event number 422.
Conceived by then-NMPRA president
Vern Smith in 1998, the Gold Cup program
solves two problems at once. Problem One
is that local clubs are often reluctant to
invest the money and effort to put on a
major race when there’s no guarantee that
anyone will come from outside the
immediate area to pay his or her entry fees
and fill out a decent matrix.
Problem Two is that an individual pilot,
or pilot/caller team, may be reluctant to
travel a long distance and pay for the hotel,
meals, and entry fees when there’s no
guarantee that the site, facilities, turnout, or
officiating will be up to par.
So in exchange for meeting specific site
and organizational criteria (see
www.nmpra.org/ under “JR Criteria”), the
hosting club is guaranteed a financial
contribution from NMPRA plus the
publicity that comes from a healthy turnout
including many top-caliber pilots.
The 2003 Gold Cup Series opened
February 22-23 at the Speedworld R/C
Flyers’ field in Whittman, Arizona. Club
President Randy Dauer and his crew put
together a contest that was by all accounts
“the best ever”—which is saying something
considering the excellent reputation the
Phoenix group has always maintained.
With a full matrix of 53 entries and some
spectacular weather (I wish this column
could be printed in full color so you could
see the photo of Saturday night’s sunset),
this contest treated everyone to a full-on,
take-no-prisoners start to the season!
Duane Gall, 1267 S. Beeler Ct., Denver CO 80231; E-mail: [email protected]
RADIO CONTROL PYLON RACING
The 2002 NMPRA/JR Gold Cup Quarter 40 season champions, together again in
Phoenix, Arizona, for the start of the 2003 series. Photo by Darrol Cady.
The Allegro design by Allen Wiltz (Metairie LA) borrows from the full-scale Nemesis. The
Allegro was clocked at 90 mph with a muffled .15 engine.
Top honors went to Randy Bridge, by
now familiar in these circumstances, with
young Gino DelPonte finishing as first
runner-up after winning a flyoff with Gary
Freeman Jr. The next four places were also
decided by flyoff: Jim Allen, Craig
Grunkemeyer, Bob Brogdon, and Darrol
Cady in that order. Rounding out the top 10
were Mike Tallman, Jim Henderson, and
Mike Helsel.
Of all those, the one with the slowest
best time of the contest (who shall remain
nameless for now) was still fractionally
quicker than my personal best ever. But
then, getting beaten by the best is the most
effective way to learn, isn’t it? I’m mentally
preparing for my next such “lesson” at the
Nationals.
An accompanying photo shows the
season point champs from the 2002 Gold
Cup Series, all of whom happened to be in
attendance this year. Congratulations to
(front row, from left) Dub Jett (fourth),
Randy Bridge (first), Lyle Larson (second),
Travis Flynn (third), and Darrol Cady
(fifth).
The sleek airplanes shown are available,
although you must know where to look for
them. NMPRA maintains a list of more than
50 approved designs, with the name of the
designer/supplier of each, on its Web site
(see preceding). Many are sold as fiberglassand-
foam “semikits” at reasonable rates.
The site now features pictorial how-to
articles about some of the more
sophisticated assembly techniques such as
sealed, flutterproof hinges. Yet another
reason to join!
Southern Exposure: Another race report
that includes a happy ending—or a happy
beginning, depending on your point of
view—is a first-person account from Jeremy
Chinn of Collierville, Tennessee.
“Upon getting back into RC flying two
years ago, my first new project was to
finish a Q-500 airplane that I’d started 10
years previously when my life was taken
over by cars, girls, and high-school football.
“On getting the airplane done and in the
air, I started asking my club members where
I could go to race. Unfortunately, I found
that the two races a year in my local area
were not enough to get my racing ‘fix’.
Again, I am hooked!
“Around the same time, Don Stegall put
his ‘PylonWorld’ pylon racing forum on the
RCUniverse website: http://www.rcuniverse.
com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&for
umid=55.
“Reviewing the posts, it appeared to
reach a large group of people, so I decided
to put a message up on the forum asking if
there was any racing in the South anymore.
“Months went by with no answer, and
then it appeared. I received a response from
a person only identified as ‘Alabama Racer’.
He mentioned that he was planning an AMA
424 [Sport Quickie] race and asked if I was
interested in attending on October 12th. I
responded to the email and promptly found
out that the person organizing the race was
none other than my old friend Brad Clayton
of Decatur, Alabama. I was ready to go!
“Arriving at the Decatur RC Club’s field,
it looked as though it would be an
interesting day. Temperatures were nice, but
a thick low fog caused a few to lose their
airplanes momentarily while test flying. Fog
or not, we were gonna race!
“The pilot’s meeting was like a family
reunion. Some of the old guard had come
out including Steve and Brad Clayton, Greg
Doe, and Dave Bowman. I took real
enjoyment from the comments people made
to me about the fact that the last time they
had seen me, I was two feet and one
hundred pounds smaller! With nine pilots in
attendance, the matrix worked out to five
rounds of action.
“Round one was interrupted by a severe
rainstorm that sent everyone scrambling for
cover. The rain lasted about half an hour,
but most of our transmitters were spared
from the downpour. After the rain cleared,
the heats progressed quickly.
“The only other difficulty of the day was
the proximity of the #3 pylon to the landing
zone. Jim Forthman and Greg VanDette
each tagged the pylon mid-way through the
day, and Brad Clayton squared up on the
pole with his red and yellow racer
immediately after winning his last heat.
While Jim and Greg’s airplanes each will be
easily rebuilt, Brad was not as lucky.
“In the end, it was Steve Clayton flying
five clean heats to take home the win, and
Brad Clayton taking home the fast time of
the day.
“I want to thank Brad Clayton (CD
[contest director]) and the other members of
the Decatur RC club who volunteered to
work the course and help to put on a good
race. I will be back!”
Results fast time:
1. Steve Clayton: 1:40.35 (Chattanooga TN)
2. Brad Clayton: 1:34.96 (Decatur AL)
3. Greg Doe: 1:36.06 (Smyrna TN)
4. Steve Conley: 1:40.03 (Chickamagua GA)
5. Jeremy Chinn: 1:35.29 (Collierville TN)
6. David Bowman: 1:40.40 (Nashville TN)
7. Dave Torre: 1:51.00 (Madison AL)
8. Greg VanDette: 1:40.00 (Nashville TN)
9. Jim Forthman: No Time (Decatur AL)
Thanks, Jeremy. Jeremy has published
plans for his Pintail Quickie 500 racer at his
Web site: www.geocities.com/matchlessaero/.
So if you’re handy with the X-Acto and
have a CAD program to print the plans with,
you can join the fun for the cost of a few
sheets of balsa.
The Need for ... Speed Dash? What do you
do if you like racing-type airplanes, you
want to engage in a little friendly
competition, but you don’t have room to set
up a racecourse? You could do what Allen
Wiltz (Metairie, Louisiana) does: organize a
Wedell-Williams Speed Dash for pocketsized
models.
What’s a Wedell-Williams Speed Dash?
I’ll let Allen explain.
“The Wedell-Williams Air Service Corp.
built racing aircraft that held all the speed
records during the early 1930s. The racers
were built only 90 miles from here in
Patterson, LA. In the early 1970s, the State
of Louisiana decided to build an aviation
museum at that site. It is now the official
aviation museum for the state, designated
the Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation
Museum. I have been a member of the board
of directors of the museum since it opened
in 1978.
“About 9 years ago while at Oshkosh,
WI [for the annual Experimental Aircraft
Association fly-in] I served on one of the
official timing teams for the Shell Formula 1
Speed Dash. This brought back memories of
the speed dashes at the National Air Races
during the golden age of aviation. I thought
how great it would be to incorporate this
concept into a model racing event.
“In 2000 I was asked by my club, the
Crescent City R/C Club of New Orleans, to
serve as contest director for our first
S.M.A.L.L. Fun Fly. This was my
opportunity to put my idea to work since the
event would fall under the S.M.A.L.L.
engine rules—a speed dash for .15 cu. in.
116 MODEL AVIATION
118 MODEL AVIATION
engines. I approached the W-W board of
directors with my idea and they voted to
sponsor the event since it was in line with
the museum’s history and would be good
publicity. Thus the Wedell-Williams
Small R/C Speed Dash was born.
“The event is run directly over our
400-foot runway. The contestant takes off,
trims his airplane and starts a pass over
the strip. At a point 100 feet from the end,
the airplane must be in level flight. Threequarters
of the way down the strip, the
airplane is ‘zapped’ with a radar gun. The
pilot makes four passes per flight (two in
each direction) and the four speeds are
averaged. The highest average after two or
three such attempts is recorded as the
pilot’s official speed.
“Models must meet the dimensional
specs of the old Quarter Midget (.15)
event, but need not resemble any
particular design. They must, however,
have cheek cowls. Engines are stock O.S.
Max, Thunder Tiger, or Norvel plainbearing
.15s with stock muffler, running
on club-supplied 15% fuel.
“The winner gets a small plaque, and
in addition, his name is engraved on a
perpetual plaque in the museum. He may
also loan the winning model to the
museum for display next to the plaque if
he can stand to be without it for a few
months.
“The idea of this event is to run a lowkey,
inexpensive speed contest on a small
field with an absolute minimum of help
required.”
Now before people start hounding me
about how this isn’t really “racing,” it’s
really straight-line speed, which isn’t the
same thing—I know it. But as Arnold
Schwarzenegger would say, “Eef life
honds you laimons, crush zem eento
laimonade.”
The fourth annual Wedell-Williams
Small R/C Speed Dash is tentatively
scheduled for October 18-19, 2003.
Contact Allen at (504) 835-2860 or
[email protected] for more details. MA