It was very early in the week, but all observers at Reno's Stead Facility, home of the National Championship Air Races could tell something special was happening! Rare Bear, Lyle Shelton's 7-time Unlimited champion F8-F Bearcat was on the course for practice and a possible qualifying run. The sound coming from the massive Wright 3350 spinning the special-design 3-bladed prop as it screamed down the homestretch sent tingles down the backs and put grins on the faces of the ramp lizards witness to this unannounced spectacle. The Bear was going faster than ever before at Reno, that much was obvious even without a stopwatch!
"The Bear" as it has become known to racing fans was beat flat out for the first time in years in the '95 Gold Race and this year Lyle was on a mission! Word was their problems at Reno last year stemmed from the fact that they had won three in a row and their attitude was simply "tune her up and go racing". Conventional wisdom (and recent painful experience) was showing that perennial challengers like Bill "Tiger" Destefani in the highly modified P-51 Mustang #7 Strega would usually break down before being able to overcome the awesome bearcat, holder of the worlds speed record for the 3 km course. This year the engine had been completely overhauled and Lyle all but promised 500+ mph laps!
Word was they had come very close, but the magic 500 mph lap average was not yet reached. Nevertheless, the Bear's qualifying
lap of 491.266 was yet another Reno record - the Bear had set the just shattered record of 489.802 only last year at NCAR. Of course,
it should be noted that second-place qualifier David Price in #4 Dago Red also broke the standing mark with a qualifying lap
of 490.826 but, oh well! One thing seemed certain: it was going to be a fast year at Reno '96!
With bad weather scratching Friday's heat race, Saturday was the first time the big boys came face to face. Unfortunately, of the eight competitors in the big name race, at least four developed mechanical problems serious enough to burn the midnight oil and do some major repairs. The Rare Bear team entered Sunday's finals uncertain as to the full extent of their problems, but had to pull out after the first lap with a badly damaged engine.
Jon Sharp, flying IF1 #3 Nemesis, continued his relentless pursuit of "the Dream" by qualifying at the Reno National
Championship Air Races with a new record speed of 258.270 mph. This is almost 5 mph faster than the previous record of
253.475 mph, and is 21.618 mph faster than Nemesis' first qualifying speed of 236.652 in 1991.
Fresh from his win at the Vancouver International Air Races, and a new 3 Km World Speed Record of 283.75 mph set at the 1996 EAA Convention this summer in Oshkosh, Jon leads the fastest International Formula 1 class in history. The average for the Gold Race field this year is 246.4 mph.
Sharp attributes his success to his team of visionaries. The team attributes it to his piloting and leadership skills. Whatever the reason, Team Nemesis is living its motto: "Chase the dream, not the competition."'
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