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So, like, finally, after a little over a year of chasin' other racers around the PROPS pylon courses and Cross-Country flights, I did it!

Won me a PROPS Unlimited-class Gold Race!!!!!

Yessiree! Even sweeter, did it in Torquemada's P-38 that's still on loan for racing purposes. Thanks Torq!

Had to be done, too. The new PROPS season is underway and the winner of the last 5 races has been the same guy...."Haunted", who's on a real winning streak with 2 Unlimited and 3 Vintage Class victories under his belt, so he's won every race so far since the season started.

As nice and great a flier as th'dude is, he had to be taken down, and the P-38 at Reno last night was the time & place to do it!

Started out by getting a win in my heat (1B).....just barely. I got out-dove toward the starting line by everyone at the start of the race, and was in the rear of the pack by the end of the first lap. Kept a smooth outside line and let the P-38 stretch it's legs by not turning too hard to bleed off speed, and planned turns very carefully. By the end of the last lap, had clawed past everyone except Flusher...who it turns out, had an unfortunate pylon cut!



So I got to sit out the Silver race and psych myself up for the big one...added enough fuel to cover the extra lap of the Gold race, took off with the group, put my mouthpiece in so I wouldn't grind my tusks off as I was grittin' my teeth, and same thing... got smoked a bit on the starting dive into the course but kept with the plan and clawed past the field one by one, and lo and behold there was ol' Haunted at the front of the pack...passed him on lap 4 and hung as that gorgeous twin-boom basti'd took me around the next two laps posthaste for the checkered flag...broke into the 1:05 lap times on the last two laps, too!




Thanks to my fellow swines for their support, Beers n' strawberries are on me this weekend! WooHOOO!!!!!!!

Congrats Stoopy! Those are some tough hombre's for sure!

Absolutely out-freakin'-standing!

Obviously, tech inspection is lax or you had a little time to pump out the remaining nitro-like substance and had the NOx bottles well concealed, but if they're no more thorough than that, it's their problem, right? Just keep the inside of your exhaust tips nice and black and nobody will suspect a thing....

(you doubled up the beans the night before, too, dincha'?)

Excellent job Stoopy!

Congratulations Stoopy !!

Well done !!


fled

Thank ya gents. Truth is, the P-38 seems to have a slight edge at the higher elevation course thanks to the supercharger setup difference, and Reno/Stead is the highest PROPS course at 5,300 feet or so. Turn with the Mustangs and you bleed off that speed, so it has to be flown a certain way a little bit farther outside to take advantage of that altitude edge. So this was the place to do it. At the lower elevations and particularly at sea level, the Mustangs tend to rule.

This weeks race will be at KNFL which is at 4,000 ft and it looks like that's just enough difference in density altitude to make it anyone's race. Might even see us a Sea Fury in the winner's circle for the first time, who knows.....but you can get your bottom dollar I'll have that nasty P-38 tuned, waxed and ready to rip!!!

Oh and Ascout.....no NOX tanks of course, but then again tech inspection doesn't normally check tire inflation, curiously, and no one notices much about a plane taking off with overinflated tires and landing with underinflated ones......the fact that the mains tuck up right inside the engine nacelles makes it all too tempting for some 'creative' plumbing...so I hear....

Well....I woulda liked to say that I'd collected one or two more trophies since then, but it looks like there's no need to make more room on the JG300 mantle yet. Not for lack of tryin' tho!

Tuesday of the following week was the Vintage class race at KNFL and man, after spending a ton of time practicing around the pylons, was I ready. Won my heat (1B) with some great lap times and so got slotted right into the Gold race. But man, I couldn't pull the same times and once Haunted got in front of me I blew my carefully-planned line around the pylons by chasing him and squaring off the corners too much. Second place.

Lesson learned: Stick to your plan and fly your line....the plane will pay ya back!



Then Thursday, there was the unlimited race and once again I took first place in my heat and got slotted for the Gold. And once again ol' Haunted showed himself to be a tough competitor....my P-38 got out-dove at the start )she just don't pick up speed in the dive like these P-51's do) and as I was chasing him down I accidentally cut inside a pylon at the start of the last lap. It wasn't even a critical pylon.....pretty much in line with the next one, right after the home pylon, and I gained nothing by being so close to the inside. So even though I diod chase him down and barely squeezed inside him to cross the finish line first by just a few rivets, that 10-second penalty cost the race. Woulda been nice to win this and since it's the only other course thats at a higher altitude where the P-38 is just a teensy-weensy but faster (but not by much). Well...that's racin!

Lesson learned: Ignore the other guy and fly the plane, watch the fargin' pylons!



And this last Tuesday, Flusher and Wombat came alive and were in a league of their own...blew away both Haunted and myself! So we had a lively race for 3rd while those two were wayyy out in front in a race of their own. So it was fourth place this time. Good part is, the reign of one intrepid racer ruling the Vintage class has been broken and everyone's gonna be hell bent for leather now!!

Lesson learned: You're never through learnin'.



Good thing about finishing farther back is you get more interesting screenshots as you cross the finish line!

GOOD GAWD ALLMIGHTY..........WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A GAWL DERN AIR RACE PILOT......................
WAY TO GO STOOP

Aww shucks....don't know about that.......what ya got here is a P-38 pilot wondering who unloaded his guns, maybe.

Here's last nights race Gold race BTW, which I only managed to qualify for due to an unfortunate encounter with terra fima by the racer in 2nd place in my first heat........it was tough but I managed to not give up the coveted last-place spot to Typhoon, who kept tryin' to race me for it, but I finally got him to cross the finish line before I did (that's good, right??)....

I dunno' I look at that last pic at the width of the P-38 and all I can think of is those commercials with that kid "I'm not sayin' I would go fishin' with the man, but he comes near me...I'll put him in the wall. Shoppin' carts, those radio-control boats...he comes near me...I'll put him in the wall."

Oh, IF ONLY aircraft collisions were enabled........but those PROPS boys is smart, they thunk ahead on that one, and they ain't.

Still and all, I'm not saying I haven't seen some P-51's pass me and come to a sudden halt half-buried in the ground......ain't my doing but I admit it brings an evil grin to my face sometimes, thinking of the joy if it were possible.....and if propwash effects were possible in multiplayer, the havoc I could wreak with those two 3-blades churning up the air behind me.....

(LOVE that commercial!!!!!!)

Dangit...ya planted the mental seed and I had to go find it!

youtube.com/watch?v=_90tfqwXc0A

Ya' know, I can just here 'em around the hangar over at "Props"...

"Whaddaya' think about Stoopy....?"

"....Whatever ....story is with me, I'll put 'im in a pylon...."

NO MORE TROPHIES!!!!!!?????????

SWINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- JG300-fr8ycat

NO MORE TROPHIES!!!!!!?????????

SWINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You remember how "Johnny" solved his trophy shortage don't ya'?

('course, it was a second place trophy....)