I will be participating in this year's AirVenture Cup race - again and
making my 19th trip to the Oshkosh convention. I depart for Dayton
this coming Saturday, then do the race on Sunday, July 22. The race
is slightly shorter this year and I hear they are making some
accommodations for fuel stops. The race link is www.airventurecup.com
Here is this year's lineup in the Sprint class (O-240 cu. in or less).
22 Quickie Q-200 Sam Hoskins
44 Velocity Scott Jones/ Bill Schiferl (74 cu. in. Mazda rotary?)
47 Vari-EZE Greg Shaskan / David Shaskan
64 Sportsman Sonerai I Jeff Lange (VW engine?)
90 Lancair 235 Dennis Collins / Kathyrn Collins
111 Vari-EZE Klaus Savier
Again, I am dismayed to see Klaus enter again. I was thinking maybe
we could have a leg-breaking event for him the night before the race -
otherwise he will surely wax me. Last year he posted a speed of 241
mph!
The #64 Sonerai is a new entrant and an unknown adversary. I know
some of that class of aircraft hasn't participated before because of
the long distances and the fuel requirements. (At wide open throttle,
my O-200 uses about 10 gallons per hour.) Now, with an unknown
allowance for a fuel stop I don't know what to expect.
I'm also not familiar with the #47 Vari-Eze, so I don't know if it's a
fast one or not. If it is a stock Vari-Eze it should be not problem,
but if he is a speed freak it could be trouble. I did beat #90
Lancair 235 last year by 5 mph and #44 Velocity by 16 mph. As long
as my engine hasn't lost too much poop over the last couple years, and
everything hold together, I can still hope for a second or third
place.
FYI, my past race speeds and standings were (in mph):
2002 172.08 Second out of 3
2003 182.53 Fourth out of 12
2004 201.12 First out of 6
2005 200.31 Second out of 5
2006 202.03 Third out of 7
My annual condition inspection took a little longer this year, I had
to pull a cylinder to heli-coil one of the cylinder studs. That was a
real pain and far more expensive than it should have been. But I flew
it a couple times this week and all seems to be well.
So that's about it. They usually post the results at the EAA
AirVenture web site a day or so after the race.
See you at the Big Show!
