Reno Racers!

Thanks to Mark Kallio of Pylon1.com for permission to use this beautiful pictures

 

"The Ranch"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately for Jim Nezgoda and his Yak-3M "The Ranch", this aircraft was written off a couple of hours after these pictures were taken......

"We were on the course at the time (the second afternoon Unlimited Class qualifying session) and was only able to tell that there was something amiss when we saw a huge plume of dust that appeared to be next to the active runway. We soon spotted emergency vehicles and personnel traveling towards that direction... and initially we thought the worse. Only when we saw additional aircraft depart some 5 minutes later we knew that the accident wasn't severe enough to tie-up the emergency personnel on the site (otherwise - all airborne operations would have been stopped immediately). After speaking with numerous eye witnesses it appeared that during take-off Jim caught a cross-wind which sent the Yak-3M towards the far side of the runway - actually causing his left main gear to come off of the tarmac and onto the sand/gravel apron. Faced with what obviously would have been a bad situation getting worse, Jim tried to apply power and get the aircraft aloft..... however he was too low on airspeed to make it work. Soon after the aircraft was aloft - engine torque caused his aircraft to pitch to the left and nose-in, cart wheeling several times and eventually coming to rest some distance away from the runway. Amazingly enough Jim escaped any serious injury - hopping out of the stricken aircraft moments after it came to a full stop on the desert floor. " Mark Kallio

 

 

"Rush-N-Roulette"

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1999 owner Sal Rubino's Race #104 Rush-n-Roulette and pilot Dave Morss held the distinction of being the slowest qualifier in the field. Dave qualified the aircraft at a speed of 320.002 MPH.

 

Other Yak-3's

 

 

Brent Hisey's New Yak-3

 

 

 

For more pictures of the Yak-3's and "Supercharged" Yak-11's visit :