Reno 1984 Nats: RC Pylon Racing
"GO WEST," she said, and I promptly pulled out of the drive facing east! "Too many trips to Toledo," I muttered. The van is on automatic south. Back in Drive, start over. I'm allowed two direction-mistakes on this trip, and I've already made one! Tripping to the "Gnats" can be as much an experience as the Nats themselves, with 2,200 miles of road construction and the endless procession of bugs making the ultimate sacrifice on my windshield. Off we go across the breadth of home state, dip around Lake Michigan, notch a corner out of Indiana, past the Windy City, and out into the wilds of Illinois. On we rolled, Westbound and Down! Across the Mighty Mississippi and out into the rolling plains of "Eye-Oh-Way." Past Sig-Land and the "Halls of Montezuma" (Hi Hazel, Hail Maxey).
RC Pylon World Champs
WORLD CHAMPION . . . nice title. Champions of the world-whoa, that sounds nice, too. We're not talking North America, or Texas, or SEMPRA, or wherever. What we're talking is the entire globe! Others might be equally talented, but to earn the title of World Champ you must compete, whether it be in racing cars, boats, models, or tiddlywinks. You don't get called World Champ for sitting home. Dave Shadel and Jim Shinohara of California are World Champions. Dub Jett and Bruce Richmond of Texas, along with Brian Richmond of Florida (brother Bruce was Brian's caller, as well), are also World Champions by virtue of their sweeping the top three positions at this year's F3D Pylon competition in Australia.
AMA Nats: RC Pylon Racing
IT WAS SUNNY, calm, overcast, windy, and it even rained one day, but none of it seemed to have any effect on Pylon Racing. Well, except for the rain; but all in all we had six great days of racing at the 1987 Nationals. I was asked to fill in for Model Aviation's usual Pylon Racing scribe (Bill Hager), who'd decided that bread on the dinner table was more important than attending the Nats. Since I was already involved as the Pylon event director, I was faced with the dilemma of writing objectively about decisions made by another person when that other person turned out to be me. Anyway, when I speak of radical decisions made by the CD, keep in mind who the fool is, or was.
