| The NEW Rookie pilot for 2010. Karl Grove was born and raised on England in Great Britain. Having always been interested in speed and the need to scare himself at least once a week, Karl turned his attention to racing Motocross. After almost 15 years racing Motocross Karl went from an amateur to Professional status and raced all over the world. |
Karl said; "After having raced motocross for so many years and after retiring just a few years ago - I've been looking for the next fix. And I've certainly found it with aviation, aerobatics and now Air Racing... flying these aircraft is all the buzz I need - Mr Curtis Pitts knew exactly what he was doing when he built the Pitts... these things are absolute Rcoket Ships"
Drag Racer is a heavily modified Pitts S1-C, it's powerplant is a Lycoming 0-360 modified engine and the airframe has been cleaned up substantially lower the amount of drag on the aircraft. Dennis Vest the previous owner and racer was instrumental along with his team in ensuring that Drag Racer was up there with the best and spared no expense in the early years of development that Drag Racer went through. Dennis, still remains heavily involved in the team and acts as a sounding board on decisions that are made today. |
|
The Rest of the Drag Racer Team
|
 |
|
Dave Magaw: Crew Chief.... fellow Pitts pilot and very good machinist, fabricator and electrical/avionics guy. Awesome guys to have around.
Bill Cordoza: All around great airplane guy... Builder of one of the first Thorp T-18's in the 70's before airplane kits were available and builder and provider of the Drag Racer golf cart.
|
From Left to Right: Peter, Bill Cordoza & Dave Magaw |
|
 |
|
Red Hamilton: Founder and former owner of Red's Headers a custom manufacturer of flat head exhaust components. Red along with his wife Marilyn race annually at Air Venture cross country air race in their very fast Whitman Tailwind. Red is an old school drag racer and has forgotten more about racing engines than I'll ever know.
|
Red Hamilton |
|
 |
|
Tom Palmer (Left): Youngest member of the Drag Racer Team. He's been around biplane racing for years having crewed for racer John Gorley for several years before he joined our team. Tom's an excellent pilot and a student at Chico State Univ.
He is also an excellent mechanic, painter and fabricator and always knows what going on at Reno.
|
From Left to Right: Tom Palmer & Gary Green |
|
|
