NMPRA Form. I Champs
HERE WE ARE at the end of our 1988 racing season. We have had our Q-500 Championship Race and our Rough River Race in Quarter Midget. Just about last on the list is the NMPRA Formula One Championship Race. Participants must qualify to race in this NMPRA event. All who did so received a letter from this year's NMPRA President, Gary Hover. The letter begins: "Congratulations! "You have qualified for the 1988 NMPRA Formula One Championship Race. As a result of your efforts in 1988 you are invited to participate in this year's race, which is being held on October 22 and 23 in Gainesville, TX."
Radio Control: Pylon Racing
BOY, THIS season went by fast for me. I lost some good friends this year - Hubert Wills (from Texas), Matt Smith, Monty Moncrief, and John Brodbeck (of K&B). I remember John helping me get my K&B engine running at the Oshkosh Nationals. It seems as though he was always around with the orange K&B truck to help out the racers. The latest loss was a friend of mine and a friend to Pylon Racing - Jim Shinohara. Following is a write-up by Dave Shadel presented in High Performance, the NMPRA (National Miniature Pylon Racing Association) newsletter that pretty well covers it:
Radio Control: Pylon Racing
HI. GANG! There are a lot of new items for '89. I just received a computer program from John Wall, 931 Ohio Ave., Lemoyne, PA 17043. This program will put together a matrix that avoids all third-order intermodulation radio interference. The program is one of several put together to help make things easier for contest management. More on this later in the season. Pete Seabase told me about Quarter-Scale Racing in another letter. Pete writes about the Tangerine Quarter-Scale races: "The second Quarter-Scale Formula 120 race of the 1989 season-and the first to see the influx of 1.2 four-stroke engines-was run on December 31, 1988 at the Tangerine Internationals.
Radio Control: Pylon Racing
WE are always looking for new and better ways to finish our Pylon Racers. Here is an update on glass cloth application sent to me by Art Arro: "This article is a sequel to one written several years ago on applying lightweight (1/2-3/4 oz.) fiberglas cloth over balsa-sheeted surfaces. The original article recommended K&B Superpoxy clear paint to adhere the cloth to the sheeted surface. At that time I felt that this method was better than the near-universal procedure of polyester resin and toilet paper. Although the clear epoxy paint excelled in application, it required many coats to fill the weave, and the adhesion wasn't up to par.
Radio Control: Pylon Racing
TWO major events during 1988 should interest the Formula One fliers: the AMA Nationals, and the NMPRA Championships. But back in the Seventies we had an annual race in Bakersfield, CA that, at one time, drew over 100 entries. Just about anyone who was anybody in Racing attended this contest. We even had people come from Japan just for the meet. Those were the good old days! It sure would be great to have a race of that magnitude again. Well, maybe we might just have a chance to have such an event again! It might not be in Bakersfield-but how about Phoenix, AZ?
