The plane and pilot this year set new records in class for qualifying at a speed of 249.106 mph in the modified Mong Racer named “Phantom” and ran as race number 62.Racer 62 ran on Thursday in Heat 1A and finished 10 mph ahead of the second place plane at a speed of 240.090 mph, flown by Jeff Lo in his Pitts LR-1 “Miss Gianna”Friday’s race in Heat 2A proved to be another finish of 10 nph over the next plane, again lapping several planes on the course“Phantom” had to race again on Saturday and finished first again at a speed of 248.197 mph and lapped 5 other planes.The Sunday gold race was a runaway for the plane, lapping 5 planes on the course and finishing at new record of 251.958 mph, while Jeff Lo was second at 231.685 mph followed by Stephen Brown at 212.237 mphPlans are already being worked out to do some additional modifications to “Phantom” and perhaps get around 10 more mph Next year Sally Knight, also a Santa Paula resident, will be rejoining the crew to do modification manufacturing and fabrication on the plane. Sally holds and FAA Airframes and Power Plant License and had do this type of work in prior years in which they all received a Pulitzer award in aviation while working on another Biplane.
Santa Paulans compete in Reno Air Races
October 06, 2006
Santa Paula News
Two Santa Paula residents just returned from the Reno National Air Races this week after competing in the worlds fastest motor sport racing event.
Two Santa Paula residents just returned from the Reno National Air Races this week after competing in the worlds fastest motor sport racing event.Vicki Cruse raced her Glassair III, # 13, airplane named “Cruse Missile” that is based here at Santa Paula Airport, in the Sport Class and qualified at a speed of 254.091 mph during the first part of last week.She later flew in the Heat 1C race on Wednesday and finished 4th at a speed of 259.322 mphOn Friday, Vicki flew in Heat 2C and finished 5th at a speed of 256.211 mphVicki was again racing on Saturday in the bronze 3C, 6 lap race, and finished 5th at 263.067 mph crossing the finish line with two other plans in a very tight race.On Sunday’s bronze race for the Sport Class, Vicki finished 5th again with a speed of 263.846 mphDuring the races this year, Vicki improved her times on the course race and on the last race on Sunday, picked up over 9 mph from her qualifying time during the first of the week.The other resident of Santa Paula was Roger Brower who crewed on a Biplane Class plane owned by Tom Aberle of Fallbrook, California which he and a friend from Clovis, Bob Brown modified to improve the speed of the plane some 10 or more mph. Their latest modifications were done 4 weeks ago and proved to b a very fast improvement for the plane which was fast already, but faster now.
