NMPRA Champs
When the fastest pylon racers in the country met in DeLand, Florida for the 1990 running of their annual championships, it wasn't easy to decide who was best. Gary Hover walked away with this year's title, but Dave Shadel was close behind. — Bill Hager
The event
Auto racing has the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500, full-size air racers have the Reno Air Races, and model airplanes have the NMPRA Formula One Pylon Racing Championships. Sponsored by the National Miniature Pylon Racing Association, this annual event showcases the most beautiful and fastest radio‑control planes anywhere.
One can qualify for the race in several ways: by finishing in the top 20% of one's district, by finishing in the top 10 at the AMA Nationals, by being a past championships winner, or by being an officer of the NMPRA. Obviously, you have to be really good to take part in this race.
This year's championships were held at Florida's DeLand Airport. The contest used a runway measuring about 200 by 2,500+ feet. The event was hosted by the Remote Control Association of Central Florida, with Dave Tyson as contest director. Repeating its performance of three years earlier, this group did a flawless job. The Quality Inn in DeLand served as contest headquarters, and the town rolled out the red carpet.
Registration and judging
The championships began on Friday, October 19. Test flying took place from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., followed by registration that evening at the motel. During registration all planes were judged for scale appearance and workmanship and checked for safety; radios were also inspected. Mike Helsel's beautiful red-and-cream model was awarded Best of Show for workmanship.
Race summary
Daybreak Saturday the pits were already busy with racers doing last-minute tuning; some pilots did test flying in the hour before racing began. The contest got under way at about 9:15 a.m.
- Heat 1: Dub Jett — 1:15
- Heat 2: Brian Richmond — 1:11
- Heat 3: Gary Hover — 1:14
Round two continued to point up Brian Richmond as one of the fastest, smoothest fliers so far.
Round three produced some extremely close races. Brian beat Dave Layman by two seconds (1:11 to 1:13). Henry Bartel edged Ron Schorr, 1:16.06 to 1:16.24. Dave Shadel dropped two points when his carburetor came loose, which left Brian and Henry tied for first after that round.
In round four Brian turned another 1:08, with Dave Layman close at 1:10. Gary Hover beat Henry Bartel by a fraction (1:14.06 to 1:14.11). By the end of the fourth round Brian held first place, with Scott Manning tied for second with several other racers.
Round five saw Brian score yet another 1:11; Scott Manning and Lyle Larson were one point behind, tied for second. Most of the field was turning times about two or three seconds slower than Brian.
In round six Brian dropped a point. Don McStay and Lyle Larson edged out Scott Manning by two points to tie Brian for first. A group of competitors — Dave Layman, Scott Manning, Dave Shadel, Gary Hover and Norm Johnson — sat two points behind Lyle, creating a tightly bunched leaderboard decided by tiebreaks after the round.
That evening the annual NMPRA banquet took place. Food and camaraderie were good; some business was conducted and well-deserved prizes for top point leaders of the year were awarded. Under the NMPRA system, pilots compete for national points earned according to finish position at district races; a formula equalizes disparities in race sizes among districts. Trophies are awarded to the six highest scorers at the banquet.
This year over 185 pilots competed for points. Norm Johnson was the most frequent competitor with 16 races; Darrol Cady was close behind with 14 races. Trophies were awarded down to 20th place. The first-place national winner took home a 35mm camera; second through 20th received special Casio wristwatches that can record lap times and total heat time. Dave Shadel finished the year as the 1990 National Points Champion, with Mike Helsel a close second, less than five points behind. The top 20 national points finishers are listed at the end of this article.
Sunday's racing began a little earlier than usual because rain threatened. The seventh and eighth rounds brought little change; Brian won round eight against Lyle Larson with another 1:11, putting him solidly in first. In round nine Brian turned a 1:10.14; Gary Hover moved into second and Dave Shadel finished third. In the tenth round Brian dropped four points due to a bad engine run, which put Dave Shadel, Gary Hover and Lyle Larson into a three-way tie for first.
Rain did arrive for a short time. Although it didn't hurt much, it made fine engine tuning more difficult and shook up the standings. In the eleventh and final round Lyle tried to beat Dave Shadel and received a zero. When results were entered into the computer, Gary Hover and Dave Shadel were tied for first. No flyoff was held to decide the championship; Gary's fast time of 1:07 was used to break the tie and give him the victory. Joe Walker, who handled the scoring, did a fantastic job.
Lyle Larson tied with Peter Bergstrom for fifth; the author (Bill Hager) tied with Paul Benezra and Clark Wade for ninth. Peter beat Lyle in his flyoff; the author bested Paul and Clark. Some special notes from the race: Gary Hover recorded the event's fastest time (1:07) and an unusually slow winning time (2:31) — ironically, the 2:31 won a heat when many others flamed out at around 1:xx. As usual, somewhere in the competition Mike Helsel lost his number-one airplane; there seems to be a jinx on number-one ships.
Closing
This was a hard-fought race. At one point the eventual winner was four points down; Brian Richmond hung in there after some bad luck for a while but Gary Hover ultimately prevailed. If you didn't make it to the championships this year, you missed a good one. Rumor has it the 1991 races might be in Las Vegas. Whatever the venue, they'll be worth attending.
Final results (race top 20)
- Gary Hover — winner (tiebreak fast time: 1:07)
- Dave Shadel — Kazi 40 — 1:11.84
- Brian Richmond — Toni — 1:08.57
- Norm Johnson — Shark — 1:11.89
- Peter Bergstrom — Toni — 1:13.72
- Lyle Larson — Mustang — 1:12.03
- Dave Layman — PoleCat — 1:10.04
- Don McStay — Toni — 1:13.96
- Bill Hager — Toni — 1:13.78
- Paul Benezra — Stinger — 1:13.28
- Clark Wade — 1:15.26
- Mike Helsel — 1:11.49
- Darrell Cody — 1:11.52
- Dub Jett — 1:13.01
- Lou Rodriguez — 1:13.62
- Bob Greer — 1:14.51
- Tom Strom — 1:12.80
- Richard Verano — 1:13.24
- Bruce Brown — 1:19.00
- Pete Reed — 1:20.73
THE AMA IS YOU AND ME!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
