RE: 424 Race in Kansas City, April 26th
KCRC 424 Race Report, April 26th 2008:
The 2nd KCRC race in nearly 2 decades is in the books. The KCRC club provided more then enough helper support to man the work course (4 plane heats), concessions, and registration table. I’ve been a member of KCRC for about 4 years now and I’m always pleasantly surprised by the level of support from our members.
Craig White did an exceptional job as the CD. Not to mention, keeping the heats up to date in the computer and all the other tasks required. Kelly Hulen and my lovely wife managed the announcements for the day keeping the racers up to speed on the coming heats. Darwin Ulledahl took care of starter duties and kept the heats moving quickly allowing us to finish 6 complete rounds by 3:30pm. Alex Williams was the assistant starter again this year and once again did a heck of job. Craig White, Robert Williams and Duane Hulen joined me during the preparations for this race, I think all the planning paid off. Thanks guys.
We had 25 registered pilots in 424 but lost one in practice due to some engine issues. We ran six 4 plane heats per round on the AMA short course which made for some exciting action with surprisingly few mid-airs. I believe there was only one on take-off. We did loose quite a few on landing. We’ll need to take a look at that for our October race. There were also a higher number of planes lost during the heats. I’m going to attribute this to the lack of nice weather for pilots to get the rust dusted off this spring, though the tighter racing may have added to the carnage.
Duane Hulen took home top honors and Dan Ulledahl grabbed fast time by a mere .02 seconds. That’s tight racing. The Chop also finished 3rd behind myself.
Jeff Pfeifer did a great job flying and it’s great to have him in the mix. Jeff allowed me to call for him all day and his skills with a transmitter were readily apparent. Jeff has competed on the IMAC circuit as well as helicopter competitions. He’s going to have a lot of fun this season.
Appreciate the Olathe guys coming over to support this race, we’ll return the favor in a couple weeks, May 10th at Hillsdale. Eddie Jump flew very all weekend as well, happy anniversary, glad we hit the Japanese steak house after the race.
Rick Miller and Dave Reiber made the trek down from Omaha again, much appreciated. We’ll try to return the favor this season at the Mead races.
Thanks to my caller Ken Van Tyle, the depending champ, he did awesome job. We missed Causey who is working to get his house ready for sale. Hope he can join us in May.
Also, Mike Foster was snowed in up north in South Dakota. Look forward to meeting you in a couple weeks, bring your A game, these guys are getting good.
We ran 5 rounds for the custom made plagues (a printed photo background, with a pilot photo placed on top, surrounded by a $5 frame, a very economical idea) and then the 6th round was the Mains with pilots grouped by times. We decided to fly 3 plane heats due to the attrition from the day of racing. I’m interested to hear what pilots think about this. Personally the heat I had with Chop and Huland was a heck of a lot of fun. Wing tip to wing tip racing is a blast at any speed…
To everyone that came out to support this race, THANK-YOU! I think we’re in the process of building something great. IT’S GOING TO BE AN AWESOME SEASON!
I’ll post the complete results and club photos as I receive them. Below are a few photos that Michele and Kelly took.
(EDIT: Hulen, not Huland. My bad D.)