Post by jvliet on Jul 5, 2017 18:30:11 GMT -6
It was 40 years ago last month…..It was Saturday morning June 18, 1977 and my friend Don Koetsch and I had driven out from New Jersey in my VW bus all the way to Sturgis Kentucky to see a small 3-class air race featuring Formula One, Biplane and Formula V race classes. As soon as we arrived at the Sturgis airport that morning, Don and I headed to the row of T-hangars where the raceplanes were being prepared, and I had a chance to look them over. I was excited to see for the first time Bill Falck’s famous ‘Rivets’ F-1 racer, and Bill had the cowling removed, revealing secrets of the exotic cooling ducts and tuned exhaust. As I was photographing ‘Rivets’ a young man walked up and caught me by the arm and said ‘I need you to be a pylon judge’. That’s how they enlisted race officials in those days! That was E. C. “Flash” Fisher, the Chief Pylon Judge at this event. My friend Don Koetsch was also grabbed to be a pylon judge; he was based at pylon #2. After a quick briefing as to how to correctly perform the duties of a pylon judge, I found myself stationed alone at the base of #3 pylon at the beginning of the back straightaway all afternoon….no sunscreen, no water, no shade. But I had a superb view of the raceplanes as they zipped by just 50 to 100 feet overhead. I distinctly remember Bob Moeller flying ‘Boo Ray’ in a steep high G turn coming precisely within a few feet of the vertical pylon line, lap after lap. He was so close that if he hadn’t been banked as steeply, his wing tip would have been over the pylon.
Later that afternoon after the day’s races were over I got to know my new friend Ed better, he told me that he was finishing up a Sonerai-1 Formula V racer which he hoped to have racing next year. I also greeted Steve Wittman, whom I met two years previously at a demo race in Martinsburg WV and looked over his V-Witt. Since I’d last seen it, Steve had added triangular wing tips, extending the wing span. I also saw Charlie Terry, whom I’d also met at Martinsburg. Charlie had finished the paint job on his #14 “Beetlebomb” since last I saw it, and Verne Willingham was also there, smoking a cigar, with his orange #7 Renegade. Terry’s crew included his wife Karen and son Bob who were all dressed in blue and white uniforms which looked really snazzy.
Sunday morning I hung nearby as the chief race starter, veteran aerobatic pilot Mike Murphy, briefed the race pilots. I remember that he made a joke about ‘you young race pilot fellers’ nodding to Wittman and Falck. There was a small public airshow that day and I guess several thousand local people attended. I distinctly remember seeing a booth selling ‘corn dogs’….hot dogs on a stick dipped in batter and fried…I had never before heard of corn dogs.
That afternoon I was back at #3 pylon, this time a little better prepared with a cap and something to drink. So from that vantage point, I saw the first official Formula V air race, with Wittman winning over Terry and Willingham, then I saw Don Fairbanks win the biplane race, and then watched Bob Moeller win the feature Formula One race. As there was a dark storm front off on the western horizon, Steve Wittman took off for his flight home that afternoon right after winning his race, and didn’t receive his trophy until a month later at Oshkosh… but that’s another story.
Later that afternoon after the day’s races were over I got to know my new friend Ed better, he told me that he was finishing up a Sonerai-1 Formula V racer which he hoped to have racing next year. I also greeted Steve Wittman, whom I met two years previously at a demo race in Martinsburg WV and looked over his V-Witt. Since I’d last seen it, Steve had added triangular wing tips, extending the wing span. I also saw Charlie Terry, whom I’d also met at Martinsburg. Charlie had finished the paint job on his #14 “Beetlebomb” since last I saw it, and Verne Willingham was also there, smoking a cigar, with his orange #7 Renegade. Terry’s crew included his wife Karen and son Bob who were all dressed in blue and white uniforms which looked really snazzy.
Sunday morning I hung nearby as the chief race starter, veteran aerobatic pilot Mike Murphy, briefed the race pilots. I remember that he made a joke about ‘you young race pilot fellers’ nodding to Wittman and Falck. There was a small public airshow that day and I guess several thousand local people attended. I distinctly remember seeing a booth selling ‘corn dogs’….hot dogs on a stick dipped in batter and fried…I had never before heard of corn dogs.
That afternoon I was back at #3 pylon, this time a little better prepared with a cap and something to drink. So from that vantage point, I saw the first official Formula V air race, with Wittman winning over Terry and Willingham, then I saw Don Fairbanks win the biplane race, and then watched Bob Moeller win the feature Formula One race. As there was a dark storm front off on the western horizon, Steve Wittman took off for his flight home that afternoon right after winning his race, and didn’t receive his trophy until a month later at Oshkosh… but that’s another story.
