NMPRA Championships
THE 1976 Formula One championships returned to Southern California on the 30th and 31st of October. The BARKS of Bakersfield hosted the contest at their flying site in Famosa, about 18 miles north of Bakersfield. RCM cosponsored the bash as usual.
With 59 entries from 15 states and over 100 planes, including backup aircraft, it promised to be an interesting weekend of competition. The scale judging was accomplished on Friday, October 29, at the Ramada Inn, Race Headquarters, in Bakersfield. The simplified method of judging, separating the aircraft into four groups, was used instead of the official rule book method of descending order from the best to the least. I did not see any planes that were not of championship quality. Some of the color schemes were a little wild, but the workmanship and finish seemed to be above par, although fidelity to scale left a lot to be desired on a great number of the aircraft.
Saturday morning dawned clear and cold, about 48°F. in California. That's cold! The first heat was due off the ground at 8:00 a.m.; it made it at 8:10. With 59 entries, each round had 15 heats scheduled. It promised to be a hectic day of racing if the BARKS ran the event in their usual efficient manner. By the end of racing on Saturday, they had completed six rounds.
The crash gremlins (goblins?) seemed to be out in force on Saturday, maybe because it was Halloween eve. Bob Emery, flying an LR-1A in the first heat of the day, couldn't go. He found a broken rudder horn just before the heat. It was too cold, in the morning, for the five-minute epoxy to kick-off before the heat started.
The third heat of the day saw Mike Atzei shred his Toni through pylon three and Maurice Franklin, not to be outdone, flew his bird into the ground just past pylon three in the same heat. At the end of five rounds, Jeff Bertken was in first place with 19 points, flying his "Brown Bag" Minnow. The next round, Jeff bit the dust — instant junk. So, after one day of racing, six rounds, 90 heats and over 25 crashes, Terry Prather was in the lead with 21 points and John McDermott and Dave Pearce were sitting in the
NMPRA Championships
Dave Lane
wings with 20 points each. Doug Ruble had the fast time of the day with 1:17.2, but he had a zero and two thirds to keep him out of contention in the first six rounds.
Saturday night was banquet night and presentation of awards for the point leaders for the season. Terry Prather was awarded the Model Airplane News award for contributing most to the sport of Pylon Racing. Glenn Spickler won this award last year.
The top ten pilots from the California area received NMPRA shirts. The rest of the National Point awards are pending the outcome of the point count. Some of the district VPs had not turned in all of the information as of October.
The banquet was well attended, the food was great, and we had a birthday cake for Bob Bladen (golden tonsils), the man who announces the Bakersfield Races and usually gives rides in his beautiful P-51. This year he had to leave the P-51 home, as Bob put it, she was drooling all over the ramp. Seems the bird developed a few oil leaks. We hope he will be able to fly her up next year for the BARKS annual race in May.
Racing started at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday and everybody was on time, even with the change back to standard time. Six of the 59 fliers were out of the competition by now. At the end of the 10th round, Terry Prather had 34 points, Jim Jensen 37 points, John McDermott 34 points, Whit Stockwell 35 points, Dan Pearce 33 points, and Steve Sica had 35 points. It looked like anybody's race at this time. In previous rounds, it seemed that every time someone was in the lead, the very next heat was a disaster for the leader.
You guessed it; in the 11th round, Jim Jensen flamed out and came up with a zero. Whit Stockwell got a zero. John McDermott won his heat to come up with 38 points, Sica got a third and only added two points for a total of 37 points. Terry Prather won his heat and now had 38 points, and Dave Pearce won his heat for a total of 37 points. The suspense was really building; could Terry win his last heat? He had a zero in the 10th round because he cut twice, but he won his last heat easily and ended up with 42 points out of a possible 48.
It looked as if there could be a tie for first place if McDermott could win his last heat. It was not to be. John finished second behind Dave Pearce to end up tied with Dave at 41 points for second place. Jim Jensen won his last heat and now he was also tied for second with Dave and John. Steve Sica managed a second place finish in his last heat to cinch 5th place. Whit Stockwell zeroed out in the last round and dropped to a tie for 8th place.
NMPRA Championships
After the dust settled, Jim Jensen, John McDermott and Dave Pearce had to fly-off for second place; Ed Hotelling and Whit Stockwell were tied for 8th place; Bill Hager, Ed Allen and Jim Moorehead tied for 10th; Walt Reiss, Cliff Telford and Pete Reed were tied for 14th spot and Dave Shadel, Bill Williamson and Jim Rodgers were tied for 19th place.
In the fly-off for second place, Dave Pearce lost the crankshaft in his S.T. 40 on the line. Jim Jensen had one cut and John McDermott won the heat with a time of 1:19.9 to end up second overall. Whit Stockwell forced Ed Hotelling into two cuts in their fly-off to finish in 8th place overall.
Bill Hager outlasted Ed Allen and Jim Moorehead for 10th overall. Ed Allen out and Jim had one cut. Pete Reed managed to force Cliff Telford to cut #3 pylon and sew up 14th spot. Walt Reiss did not fly in this heat as he had to leave for the airport to catch his flight home.
The wildest fly-off of the day was for 19th place. Dave Shadel, Bill Williamson and Jim Rodgers continued on page 92. Bill could not get his engine started so Dave and Jim went at it hot and heavy. On the 7th or 8th lap, the engine came out of Jim's plane between pylons 2 and 3. The engine traveled about an eighth of a mile past the race course and Jim's plane fluttered to the ground at pylon 3. Jim said that next year he will set himself on fire for his grand finale.
Young Steve Sica set the fast time of the meet with a 1:15.0 for some extra hardware. Naturally he was flying his D&S Ricky Rat.
Many thanks should be given to the BARKS Club of Bakersfield for doing a fine job of running the Championship races this year. Ann Redwine and her husband Wes were the Co-CD's with Glen Spickler overseeing the whole show. Ron Shorr talked to RCM and must have threatened them with something terrible. RCM provided some of the most beautiful trophies I think I have seen at a Formula One contest. The first five places also received a Heathkit digital clock. Terry Prather also won the perpetual trophy for the second time.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
