The 2013 Reno Championship air races are in the history books and the Blue Crew must congratulate Jeff LaVelle for his outstanding work and the win in the Sport Gold race.
Putting the best spin on second place being the first loser, the Blue Crew is proud of our performance in taking second in the Gold at respectable speeds of 390 and change MPH. Though 390+ was not quite enough to win, it is all we had and we were quite consistent all week long.
The Blue Crew performance was good for our sponsors, whom we thank very much for their support, and our customers. We are also very proud that the 390+ MPH speed is the fastest any Thunder Mustang has gone
anywhere.
The picture below was sent to me through Facebook but shows how each race day started at 7:30 AM with the old guy and the fast guy taking the soft seats in the back of the briefing room. The ever present FAA observers are in the foreground.
Thunderstorm 2013 ended each day a little after 7:30 PM with seven TMs in the hangar with dinner and “debriefing” continuing for some time. The last three men standing take the tables outside and put the last TM, Guardian Angel, inside and closed the doors.
For the members of the TBG, they will be interested to know that Dean Holt of http://www.thundermustang.com/ was in attendance and has sworn that he will be back for Thunderstorm 2014 with his TM.
Well the first question I am always asked after the races is what’s next? The 2014 schedule is still in development with the Venture Cup possibly in the schedule. The 2014 conditional inspection starts in December and we have some airframe upgrades to include this winter. The last show of the season is the Gathering of Mustangs October 12 and we will have a short report after that show.
We will be delivering our “stock” engine to the dyno shop next week where it will be for some time developing a valid fuel and ignition map for the engine as well as some useful partial power data to help develop better cruse data for our Thunder Mustangs. I believe this information will be very valuable to the TBG members and all future TM owners.
It is the support of all our fans and sponsors that makes the success of Blue Thunder II possible. The Crew thanks everyone so very much for their support and we wish all a Happy Halloween.
– John Parker
