Tim,
How about the pilot of the Red Baron Mustang? Was he okay? That wreck looks pretty bad!
Renee, the year was 1979 and the Red Baron was favored to win as a well financed and heavily engineered racer, and as 1978 Unlimited Gold Champion.
Built from a P-51 - it was revolutionary in that it was powered by a Rolls Royce Griffon engine that featured two counter-rotating propellers on a common shaft. Although effective in the Avro Shackleton bombers for which it was designed - the Griffon's propeller gearbox could not withstand the prolonged punishment of air racing. (Kinda' like asking David Athans to run a '62 Falcon 3-speed behind his 500+ hp "Stroker" ;-)
During Sunday's championship; Red Baron pilot Steven Hinton, age 25 (youngest Unlimited champion at that time) fought hard in a close Second behind John Crocker's modified Mustang when on the fifth lap, the gearbox in Hinton's plane began to go!
Hinton left the course and made a shallow turn toward the runway, but as those two props quit turning - away went his airspeed! He tried to land instead on a dirt road, but struck the only rock pile in Lemon Valley with his wig tip, cartwheeled and crashed...
The cockpit section fortunately tumbled away from the fireball and Hinton survived having spent 9 months in the hospital! He went on to become president of "Planes of Fame Air Museum" in Chino, CA. (among many other accomplishments) and still flies the pace plane at Reno to this day.
The irony in all this is that his son; Steven Hinton Jr., age 23, went on to win the 2009 Unlimited Gold Championship as the youngest pilot (and fastest at 491.822 mph) flying "Strega", another highly modified Mustang!
Both Hintons bask in the glory of the winner's circle in the photo below (L to R) 1979 - 2009...
P.S. I know this is way more than you wanted to know, but it's raining and I don't have any fresh "car" stories
;-)
