Radio Control Pylon Racing-2011/12

Top right: After a three-way flyoff for first place, the top three pilots and callers in
Q-500 Event 426 were (L-R) Mike Helsel, Dub Jett (first); Dennis O’Brien, Tom Scott
(third); and Mike Del Ponte, Gino Del Ponte (second).
Above: Team USA F3D members at the 2011 World Championships held in
Australia: (L-R) pilot Travis Flynn, caller Robert Holik, pilot Randy Bridge,
manager Dan Kane, and pilot Gary Freeman Jr.
Right: This month’s “Racer’s Story” features Dub Jett,
pictured here, tuning Mike Helsel’s Q-500 Event 426 racer during
the 2011 AMA Nats.
The 2011 RC Pylon Nats was a nail-biter
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Pylon Racing Aaron “AJ” Seaholm
Also included in this column:
• Get to know Dub Jett
• Team USA F3D results
NATS RECAP: The 2011 AMA RC
Pylon Nats included four separate events.
This year was a departure from the norm;
historically the Pylon Nationals has been
scheduled for two classes. In addition to
the standard Q-500 (AMA Event 428) and
Q-40 (AMA Event 422), the provisional
National Miniature Pylon Racing
Association (NMPRA) event, Electric
Formula I, and the newest official Q-500
class (AMA Event 426), were added to the
schedule.
In recent years, the format has been
two days of Q-500 (AMA Event 428)
followed by a half-day of finals. Q-40
(AMA Event 422) then kicked off for the
final 21/2 days, wrapping up with the Q-40
Finals.
The featured qualifying and finals
event this year was 426 Q-500, which was
flown the first two days, followed by Q-40
on days three and four. The 428 Q-500
event and Electric Formula 1 (EF1) were
flown as single-matrix contests on days four
and five.
The final standings in 426 Q-500 took
two flyoffs to establish the top five places.
The first flyoff paired Randy “Mr.
Consistent” Smith from the frozen
Canadian Northland against the alwaystough
Billy Johansen. Billy was able to
establish an early lead and forced Randy
Smith and caller Roy Andrassy into a cut
trying to catch up. Bill Johansen and
Randy Smith finished fourth and fifth
respectively. Well done, gentlemen.
The 426 National Championship came
down to a three-way tie at two points
down, 18 out of a perfect 20 points for five
rounds. The logjam at the top included
Gino Del Ponte, Dub Jett, and Tom Scott.
When the dust settled, Tom Scott had
registered a cut to place third and Gino Del
Ponte buzzed a propeller on takeoff and
could not get around Dub Jett. Gino also
posted the quickest time to take home the
coveted Fast Time trophy with an
impressive 1:02.84. Congratulations to
Dub Jett on the 426 AMA National
Championship.
The Q-40 top five took one flyoff to
establish the final standings. Gary Freeman
Jr. finished in fifth place, four points
down. Gary was edged out by fellow
Floridian, six-time Overall National
Champion, and former World Champion,
Randy Bridge, in fourth, three points
down.
In an interesting Nats twist, the flyoff
for second place pitted Dub Jett of Jett
Engineering Inc. against Mike Langlois,
manufacturer of the Nelson engine line. In
a Chevy-vs.-Ford-type showdown, Mike
was able to not only win second place, but
also secure head-to-head bragging rights in
the manufacturer battle for supremacy.
Congratulations Mike Langlois on a
second-place-finish and Dub Jett on taking
a well-deserved third place.
Mike Helsel, with the support of caller
Dub Jett and Jett propulsion, navigated the
five rounds of the Q-40 Finals to
perfection. Mike did not drop a single
point in those five rounds and secured the
Q-40 National Championship without a
flyoff. Winning five straight rounds at the
AMA Nats is an exceptional feat. Well
done to Mike Helsel, your 2011 Q-40
AMA National Champion.
With the victory in 426 and a thirdplace
finish in Q-40, Dub Jett was crowned
the 2011 AMA Overall National
Champion. Congratulations, Dub, on
securing the highest honor in US Pylon
Racing.
When you are on a roll, you are on a
roll. Following the Q-40 Finals, the 428 Q-
500 contest was flown for five straight
rounds. Mike Helsel put another five
rounds of perfect scores together to secure
the 428 AMA National Championship.
That’s right; one day, 10 rounds of Nats
racing, and Mike Helsel did not lose a
120 MODEL AVIATION
single race. That is simply amazing. Gino
Del Ponte finished in second, Matthew
Fehling in third, Dub Jett fourth, and Terry
Frazer rounded out the top five in 428 Q-
500.
Day five dawned with many tired
racers after the previous action-packed
day. Fortunately, EF1 was on the agenda
and most I have talked with enjoyed the
slower pace and lower intensity level of
the new Provisional NMPRA EF1 event.
Horizon Hobby was on hand to sponsor
the inaugural EF1 event with trophies and
pilot goodies. I heard that loaner models
supplied to pilots inflated the 37-entry
total. Those trying to make EF1 a reality
were willing to loan their time and
investments to their racing friends, just to
give them a taste of the competition. My
hat is off to those trying to expose as many
pilots to EF1 as possible.
The event came down to a four-way
flyoff for second place. Travis Flynn
finished second, Jerry “The EF1
Godfather” Small in third, John Jennings
finished fourth, and Mike Helsel landed
the fifth spot. Gino Del Ponte was the EF1
Champion and Dennis Cranfill secured
Fast Time with a 1:10.97.
I would like to send out a special
thank-you to former NMPRA President
Scott McAfee. Scott’s leadership and
dedication has poised RC Pylon for the
future. He was instrumental in driving the
EF1 and 426 events. With these hard
changes in place, Scott has left us on a
sustainable and stable flight path for
many more years of exciting Pylon
Racing. My sincerest gratitude and
thanks to you, Mr. McAfee.
A Racer’s Story: Dub Jett. In my
August 2011 column, I introduced you to
new racer Lonnie Finch of the Kansas
City, Missouri, area. The Lonnie Finch
and Lyle Larson stories seemed to strike
a chord with readers.
In this column I will tell another
seasoned racer’s story. In July 2011, Dub
Jett clinched the 2011 AMA Overall
National Championships with a win in
426 Q-500 and a third-place finish in Q-
40. His teammate, Mike Helsel, captured
the Q-40 National Championships—not a
bad week for the Jett and Helsel team.
I gave Dub a call to get his story and
we had an enjoyable conversation about
his Pylon experience.
As a disclaimer, the racer’s story
features are accounts as told by the
racers. Several readers have pointed out
the historical inaccuracies of previous
stories. Like fisherman, racers can
sometimes recall events differently than
documented in historical records. I do
not fact-check these racers’ stories for
historical, biological, technological,
statistical, or any kind of other accuracy;
I simply tell the story for your
enjoyment.
This year’s AMA Nats marked the
49th Nationals that Dub has attended. The
first 23 years of Dub’s model aircraft
career were spent flying CL Speed. He
has been an AMA member since 1953—
nearly 60 years of modeling.
Dub’s racing career started at a Texas
Q-500 race in 1979 after he learned to fly
with a K&B-powered Quickie. (For the
record, I was 2 years old then.) Dub
mentioned that at that time there was a
Q-500 race nearly every weekend and the
consistent competition had a great deal
of appeal. Dub attended his first Pylon
Nationals that year and flew Formula 1.
Dub stated, “I cut my teeth in racing
flying F1.” Soon, he had amassed three
FI NMPRA Point Championships and a
couple of Nats titles.
In the mid-1980s, Dub was lured into
FAI F3D. He mentioned that much
tuned-pipe technology came from his
time in CL Speed. During those years, he
lowered the World Record by 5 seconds
to 1:14 from 1:19. He held the FAI
World record for a seven-year span, from
1986 to 1993. In 1991, Dub won the
World FAI F3D Championship and
earned a free trip to the 1993 World
Championships, where he finished 34th.
Dub told me, “FAI will ruin your life.”
The time and monetary investment
required to compete strains one’s
personal life, he said.
A vivid story in Dub’s racing memory
is the 1991 World Championship. The
judges had given a signal that another
competitor had won. The announcement
declared his competitor had won by a
mere .1 or .2 seconds after 14 hardfought
rounds. Dub was dejected but was
soon surprised by his teammate, John
Shannon, who came running over,
jumping up and down, to let him know
he had won.
In 1992, Dub was laid off from the oil
field where he had been working as a
research and design engineer. He made
the decision to start an engine-building
business, which was a tough pill to
swallow. He had said there was no
market in model engines. As he recalls,
he was sucked into it, and now he goes to
work every day and gets to build model
engines.
Jett Engineering’s primary market is
high-performance sport engines. Dub spent
a great deal of time developing the
carburetors that allow his high-performance
engines to reliably run and idle.
Dub recounted several NMPRA Point
Championships in Q-40: winning the Q-
40 NMPRA Championship race three
times and roughly four Quarter Midget
.15 National titles. He has won the Nats
in all the events twice—except Q500—
but that changed this year with a
National Championships in 426 Q-500.
Dub is a fan of Q-40 and believes this
event has provided him another 20 years
of Pylon Racing.
The Overall National Championship
this year has been Dub’s pinnacle
achievement in RC Pylon Racing. That is
saying something with a World
Championship on his résumé.
I have raced with Dub Jett for several
years. He is a fierce competitor and has
supported our event for many years.
Thank you, Dub, for taking the time to
discuss your history, allowing me to
share it with the community, and
congratulations on your many RC Pylon
accomplishments.
Team USA F3D and World
Championship: Team USA F3D was
unable to repeat as the Team World
Champion, but not for lack of effort.
Making the team and representing the
great Pylon racers of the United States
takes a great deal of dedication and
effort. Tip of the hat to Team USA.
Have fun, race hard! MASources:
National Miniature Pylon Racing
Association
www.nmpra.org
NatsNews
www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/natsn
ews.aspx
Jett Engineering Inc.
[email protected]
www.jettengineering.com