Sawbones Air Racing

Well, the Reno Air Races are over for 2018 and some thoughts are in order. I watch sitting on my dead ass as Mike Dudinyak meticulously cleans Sawbones after Curt flew it back from Reno. It’s the same feeling you can get by watching a White Castle fry cook working hard flipping burgers after the bars have closed. The big airplane is back at Anoka safe and sound.  Tony remains on the road driving the semi, soon to arrive. It was just two weeks ago I left with Tony. We left in the rain, and now he returns in the rain.

    I am so thankful to all of our crew and their supportive families. The amount of work and dedication to campaign an unlimited class racer is enormous and I bow to all of you

The generosity of our sponsors have made this venture financially possible. I thank all including Thomson Reuters, Building Restoration Corporation, 3M, Precision Lens, Mike Donatelle, Barry and Denise Knotts of TACSSI, John Bormes of Hangar 49, Bill Hirzel of Dei Fratelli, Thomas Pink of Pink Wealth Management, Air Capital Insurance, Blaine Brothers Trucking, Wagner nursery, Dave and Camy Etchell, Concorde Battery, and Aircraft Electronics.  Oh, and thank you Pat Harker for letting us borrow your fantastic mechanic Rick Ranheim .  Rick, thanks for a fantastic job as crew chief.

Our first trip to the winners circle was unbelievable. Capturing a third place finish among the best aircraft in the world is really mind blowing. It took us 10 Reno’s, but we made it!  New exhaust stacks performed flawlessly and our R-3350 pounded out many laps under absolute full power without a hiccup and making no metal.

 Curt Brown our shuttle commander race pilot did a perfect job guiding the 70 year old five ton Gorilla of a race plane around the pylons. Of the five sea fury aircraft competing in the final gold unlimited race we were the second fastest, bested only by Dreadnaught powered by the R-4360 “corncob”. Miss America got around us this time, but maybe not next time!

I look forward to our post race party and seeing all our “friends of Sawbones “ again. In a daze I dream of what we can improve on the airplane, the engine.

We start our checklist already for next year.......

Thanks to all again!

Robin and Jackie Crandall