Dave Gavin Memorial (Whittier) Results 2019

[ceandra]

As expected, the San Gabriel Valley R/C League put on another great race at Whittier Narrows. Dan, Mario, and Gil lead a fantastic team of club members who work in the hot sun from 5:30am until we quit racing. these guys are dedicated to making our visit a success.

As always, the air was fast, but perhaps not quite like last year. Travis laid down a near-record 56:53 with Gino chasing. Tony McDonald won 424 (and note that two first-time racers participated, with one taking fast time). Rich Beers was killing it in 426. Q40 culminated in a 3-way tie for first, with all three pilots 5 points down. A good indication of how tough the racing is at Whittier! Gino Del Ponte, Robert Holik, and Mario Salazar took it to extra innings. Mario cut early, and then he and Robert met on the way to #1, leaving Gino to cruise for the win.

The West Coast Series was also completed with this race. the series included Whittier in March (2 races), Denver (2 races), Phoenix (Winterfest for 426, Classic for Q40), and the Gavin Memorial. Kevin Fisbeck took home the championship in 424. Rich Beers has been on fire in 426 this year, and took the trophy. Rich came close in Q40, but I was surprised to come out on top, not with winning trophies, but consistent placement in the top 10 in all events.

Thank you to SGVRCL for another great weekend!

Chuck Andraka
11H

424:

426:

Q40:

[Mr_McGlue]

Was a great race! Thanks to all the course workers and club. Saturday was pretty tough on them as it was pretty warm.

Friday practice started out with some transformers blowing up in the park starting a fire (it was even hotter on Friday). We had some Santa Ana winds plus all the brush is pretty dry this time of year there. The Sheriffs ended up evacuating the park for a short time. 30 plus pilots packing up all their stuff wasn't a quick process.

Some photos:

Video of the tanker drop https://youtu.be/gXDj3dPVxTw

[Mr_McGlue]

424 Saturday

1st Tony McDonald

2nd Richie Thorp

3rd and West Coast Series Grand Champion Kevin Fisbeck

[Mr_McGlue]

426

5th Jim Allen

4th Travis Flynn

3rd Dan Coe

2nd Dub Jett

1st Richard Beers

Fast Time Dub Jett

[Mr_McGlue]

422

5th Chuck Andraka

4th Alex Vazquez

3rd Mario Salazar

2nd Robert Holik

1st Gino Del Ponte

Fast Time Travis Flynn

[Mr_McGlue]

West Coast Series Chapions

424 Kevin Fisbeck

426 Richard Beers

422 Chuck Andraka

[Mr_McGlue]

And what the race was all about our friend Dave Gavin. Was great seeing his family attend.

[killerd]

Congrats to Mario, Dan, Chuck and the club for putting on another successful event. Congrats to the trophy winners who fought for every point this weekend. It's nice to see the winner was at least 5 points down from perfect in Q40 and then had to flyoff with an exciting final race. Lot's of race casualties including the flyoff, sorry to Mario and Robert. I'm also amazed and rewarded to see Dave Gavin's entire family coming out to support our racing event years after Dave passed away. We struggle to get our own families to the event, I think there was 15 or more... WOW!!!

Doug K

[Dave Yost]

Yes! Great Contest. Dan, Mario, Gill, the Workers and Chuck, thank you for ending the season on a strong note. It was an interesting year in California, weather up north and the FAA down south interfered with the season. But this contest made up for It! Our friends from down south brought load of airplanes and talent as well.

I drove home and started working on airplanes for next season!

Here are a few pictures to toss on the stack.

[MSALAZAR]

The Third annual Dave Gavin Memorial Pylon race is in the books!
Very successful event all around.
We had 43 pilots, generating 8 entries in 424, 28 in 426 and 34 in Q-40 for a total of 70 entries. We had pilots from Mexico, Venezuela and 8 US States to close the 2019 racing season in the West Coast. Thank you to all pilots who supported this event!

One of the most rewarding things this weekend, was to have two brand new 424 pilots competing. Thanks to Richie Thorpe and Cory Latvala for joining us this last weekend. Hopefully you guys will become regulars at our future events in SoCal!

As was pointed out before, Dave Gavin's family came over to the event both days, to honor Dave and to say hello to his Pylon racing friends who miss him.

After a very exciting racing weekend, Gino, Rich and Tony (Q-40, 426 and 424 respectively) went home with the top honors for the weekend, along with Travis, Dub and Richie getting the highly sought after Fast Time Whittier Hats. Congrats to the rest of the trophy winners, after a very competed weekend of close racing!

We also awarded the 2019 West Coast Series Champions.

424 Kevin Fishbeck
426 Rich Beers
Q-40 Chuck Andraka
Congrats to these guys!

I'd like to thank the SGVRCL for their continued support and for trusting the organizing committee to plan and execute these events.
I would also like to thank Chuck Andraka, Gilbert Lucero, Robert King, Glenn Branch, Pat Phelan, RJ king and the rest of the club members who work tirelessly and who donate two full days, so we can go out there and have some fun.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Dan Thordarson for all the hard work coordinating and executing and also being an amazing teammate!

See you all next time!