Thanks to the San Gabriel Valley RC League for supporting our organizing committee for so many years to continue to organize and execute races.
Last weekend, we had our typical West Coast high level of competition in ALL heats...
The weather was near perfect on Saturday and the weatherman had forecasted some winds in the afternoon on Sunday, but, hey... Weather people are always wrong, so we all disregarded that.
This time, the wind predictions were correct, and we were hit with 20+ mph cross winds on Sunday shortly after lunch, that made racing pretty interesting.
We saw the typical very unfortunate attrition this weekend (included one of yours truly and Super T in perhaps one of the loudest crashes I've ever heard while pylon racing) ... I heard a few pilots lost multiple airplanes...
We had pilots from as far away as Brazil (thank you Marcelo and Emanuel... You guys get the prize for the longest flight to get to our race), Mexico (Salvador, Juan, Mario and Jaime, thank you for always supporting our events), Canada (Dr. Doolittle AKA Mr. New Canadian Record... Congrats) several USA states (OK, NM, TX and WA) and of course all the California usual suspects. Thank you all for supporting our events.
This race brought a new 424 face. His name is Teo Sfatcu. Our Whittier group has taking Teo under our wing (I hope he doesn't learn all of Dan's and Robert's bad habits...) and we wish him lots of success in the future.
In 424, Jacob McDonald ended up on top both days, with Jim Padelt following pretty closely.
in 426, Rich Beers was definitely the man to beat, posting a blazing fast minute flat (FT) on Saturday and getting first place both days. Dan T got FT on Sunday
In 422 on Saturday Laird Owens (AKA gimpy shoulder)
with his LVH Shark took the top honors with a perfect score and Roy got FT.Sunday was a different deal all together because of the wind, which had Jaime de la Vega taking first place and Robert Holik with a sub minute FT, which he set literally a few minutes before the wind started blowing.
Congrats to all the winners and their teammates! (thanks to Chuck and Doug for posting the results)
I think Scott Hartman took a bunch of pictures (thank you Scott), so maybe he can post some here.
Now for the big thank you section...
A big thank you to ALL the pilots, who came to support our event. These races are a lot of work for everyone involved and they need the support of all of us to guarantee their continuation. These are difficult times, but if you are able to, please support the races!
A big thank you to the SGVRCL for their support and trust they've given us to plan and execute these events all these years!
Thanks to Gilber Lucero, Rick Tyree and the rest of the Club volunteers for helping us coordinate some of the logistics over the weekend.
Thanks to Rick Tyree's wife Margaret for feeding us amazing lunches both days.
Thanks to Chuck Andraka (even though he also had a gimpy shoulder) who showed up both days at o'dark thirty am to set up the course and help out with the course computer.
Thanks to Toni Morgan and Michelle (sorry, forgot her last name) for volunteering in P1 even though they are not club members.
Thanks to Robert King for taking charge of the Matrix duties.
Thanks to Gary Schmidt for helping out everywhere he was needed all weekend.
I'm sure I'm forgetting people to thank, because it takes a bunch of people to make these events happen.
Finally, I'd like to Thank Dan Thordarson's wife Judy for letting me borrow Dan for the weekend.
Make sure you mark your calendars to attend the Woodland race on May 21st and 22nd... You do not wanna miss that one...
See you all in Woodland!
