Chasing A Dream - Steven Hinton Jr. Race Blog Options

[Rob Reider]

Steve -

We've not met but I've worked with your dad at many air shows. It's a pleasure and a real education to read your posts and I congratulate you on them AND your involvement with the races.

I do hope to meet you one of these days at "a show near you!"

Regards,

Rob Reider

P.S.: Please give my best to your dad.

[ewp3]

SteveO, great reading your blog since we couldn't make it up there this year. All us wannabes at Chino are happy for you and will be there next year to watch you in the gold with Strega. Cant believe how far you have come since you were cool enough to give me a ride in your Luscombe a few years ago. Regarding the video of you texting your dad to borrow the Mustang...I had a simular situation when I was 18...I asked my dad for his Mustang for a date...he said "hell no, your not driving my car, take your Volkswagen".

Good Luck! Eric Petrovich

[fotohayden]

Congrats to Steve for a safe racing debut, and also to Tiger and all the Strega crew for the hard work and well deserved win in the gold....

[Horndog]

Steve

Thank you for this great perspective. I'm probaby one of many thousands of pilots who often daydream of racing at Reno. I got to be part of a 3-ship of F-16s doing a flyby in 98 or 99. Wished I could have done a lap.

I think the only time I saw you, you were in your mother's arms at POF. OK, I'm officially old now after saying that.

Very glad you (and everyone else) had a safe race. You are at the age that my friends and I used to fly rental planes a bit less than safely. While my high school friends were crashing their parents cars, well, take a look at my pictures if you get a chance.

I hope that you are able to get youre ya-yas out just by being at the controls of those great planes without getting in trouble like I did before I wised up a bit. You have the best mentors in the air. I think you will be fine.

Thanks again for this perspective. Take care.

Dave in Vacaville

[SteveO]

Wednesday September 17

Location: Chino CA

First of all my apologies for not posting these last few nights, we had an extremely late night Saturday preparing for Sunday's race, and Sunday night, well, we celebrated until we fell asleep, which was relatively early.

A quick answer to Jan-Arie's question, we change the spark plugs after every flight because we are tying to get a read on our carburetor richness or leanness, fuel additives, if we need more or less, that sort of a thing. So we change them after every run to learn from the trends. Let me tell you, the plugs we pulled out Monday morning from Sunday's Gold Race looked spectacular.

Where I last left off, Saturday. Lets see, in my heat race flying Sparky, I started at the #2 position outside of Doug Matthews. The join up went well, I got there quickly with Doug, and we scooted along Peazvine Mountain. For the first lap I decided I would run with the coolant and door closed and run the spray bar water over it to keep my coolant temperature down. So coming around on the base leg, I closed it up, flipped on the spray bar, and took a position next along the pace plane that I liked.



On the final leg, I pushed my prop up to obtain max RPM, 3,000, and started down hill. I was just abeam the pace jet, I lost sight of Doug as he dropped low for the start, a quick wing dip to the left gave me the visual on his aircraft. He was lagging a little on the start, so I made sure I kept up on the jet, not giving him an inch in front of me. At the start, I pushed the throttle up to 55" and headed downhill, there was Doug again, briefly, but I skated right past him into the lead and into the first turn around pylon 4. A quick look at the temperatures and pressures down the valley showed everything was well. I lead the first lap and pulled the power back to climb power, and was immediately passed by Robbie Patterson flying Lady Jo. He moved ahead of me by about a half a lap I think by the end of the race. I was also passed by Doug, but decided to bump the throttle up a ways since he was not too far ahead, and passed him again. I finished 2nd, but Robbie moved up to the Silver Race the next day so I had the poll for tomorrow's start. This was real exciting since I'd be flying next to my dad, pretty cool.

As far as Strega went, we were ready for Saturday's 3 o'clock race by noon, we were well prepared, and lounged around until we needed to tow out. We started 3rd, behind Mike Brown in 2nd and Dan Martin in 1st. At the start of the race, Tiger was a little low and wide off the pace jet, and fell behind the pack, even to be passed by Chech Mate, the Yak. As the race ensued, Tiger moved up the field and finally finished 3rd in front of Rare Bear and John Penney. He hadn't run too much power, and tried to just finish in the top 3 for Sunday's start. With the fast pack we had this year we believed this would be a good strategy because the start would be a huge battle from 7th position to 1st if we lollygagged around the course.



All of our telemetry looked good during the race, and after getting back to the pits around 5, we began to do our normal routine. Screens and plugs looked good, we made few tweaks and adjustments to obtain a little more horsepower for Sunday, and then moved onto the valves. I adjusted the lash on the "B" bank, and moving to the "A" bank, found the came pretty well torn up. Our Crew Chief David Hughes and Engine Builder Mike Nixon then determined we needed to change out the camshaft before we ran again. The night began to close up around 12 or 1, I forget now, it seemed to go on forever, and we were dragging our butts a bit. Our plan was to come back in the morning, fix the cam, run the plane, service it with fuel, O2, ADI and water.



At 7 the next day we did just that, refreshed from more than 3 hours of sleep, the tasks went by quickly without a hitch, and we once again found ourselves ready for the race hours in advance. This is really nice to do; it just takes the stress out of the equation. In years past we have had moments where we are under the gun, but still pull it off. This year just seemed to go smoother.

At 11 or so I headed off to fly Sparky in the final Bronze race at the pole position. At the pole position, you are responsible for calling up ground and race control for the flight, and are pretty much flight lead until the pace jet takes over. The racers head out and stack down the runway at a 45-degree angle, let the pace jet begin its take off roll. Steve calls 80 knots over the radio and the first racer proceeds to begin his take off roll. When his tailwheel lifts off, the next racer goes and so forth. This is too make sure that the formation does not get too far spread out and is able to join up, eventually. Being the number 1 airplane, I rolled the throttle up to take off power after hearing 80 knots, and was excited to see that this would be a relatively easy join. I was actually caught off guard at how close I was behind the jet, and had to come back on the power more quickly than I did in the past. I crossed under the plume of smoke laid out by the pace jet and over shot, then brought race 44 back alongside the right hand side of my dad in echelon. The rest of the join went smooth, and we marched on towards Peavine.

I was going through my same routine as the day before, closing my door, turning on the water, knowing that anything extra I could gain on the start would be beneficial to me because Doug Matthews planned to flog his airplane to finish and Voodoo also was in the race, well capable of speeds greater than 60 mph than me. Knowing that those two were going to jump in front, I planned on pulling the power back to METO power after lap 1, then backing down from there.

Down the chute we came, and at the release I was number 1. We made our way along the backside of the course and on towards the valley of speed. A quick look at the gauges and everything indicated A OK. When flying at a higher speed it is actually easier to fly the course because you can make a circle out of it, and hit only primary pylons. When slower, you fly pylon to pylon and it is much different than a faster airplane. I finished the first lap in first, but was quickly passed by Will Whiteside flying Voodoo and later Doug Matthews. So I pulled the power back and cruised to an easy finish in 3rd averaging 314 mph.

Off the course into cool down, my dad joined on me in the AirShowBuzz T-33 (pace jet) and made an orbit with me. On the ground, we did not even debrief, everyone was happy with the flight, and I had successfully finished my first year racing. As lowtech said (thanks Dave) it is about finishing with the airplane in one piece on the ground, winning comes second. I learned a lot this year, mainly being able to have a sight picture, and was able to get my feet wet this year. Maybe next year I will be able to take that next step.

I owe a big thank you to Brant and Steve Seghetti, along with the rest of the Segehtti family, and Ward, for letting me not only fly their P-51 but also race it. It takes a leap of faith for someone to let a 21 year old do that, but I am honored and indebted that they let me undertaker that. Thank you very much guys, it was an experience I will never forget.

For the Gold Race, the racers were towed down to the grandstands for the start, and Mike Nixon and I were left chatting on our telemetry cart for a while about random things. A while later, the race started up, taxied and took off, in the meantime, our telemetry looked good, and the crowd was anxious. Down the chute they came, and the four racers screamed across the course. Tiger's first lap was a 496, and he gained rapidly on Brown and Martin. Coming around 7 and 8 again, Brown went wide, as he normally does, making it difficult to pass. Being aggressive as he is, Tiger saw the opening and passed, legally, on the inside of Brown moving into 2nd. Within the next two laps Tiger caught Dan and moved into first. He passed him like he was standing still and took a quick three second lead over him. The rest of those laps seemed to take forever, pulling the power back for the last half of the race and lapping a good part of the field, Tiger finished strong and in 1st place. Martin finished 2nd, Brown 3rd, and Rare Bear had maydayed out with what we think were burned pistons.



It was a moment of extreme happiness, it actually still hasn't fully sunken in. But Tiger was able to end his career with his 7th victory, tying him only with Daryl Greenameyer, and LD got his first win as crew chief. It was also Nixon's first win since 82 with Dago Red.

All around, it was a great year, and a good learning experience. It really taught me that the race is won before you show up to Reno, and we had our ducks in row. I really enjoyed writing this blog, and am happy that you all enjoyed reading it, maybe learning a thing or two. Thanks to AirShowBuzz, Ed Shipley and Deb Mitchell for making this possible, and hope to see you at the races next year, September 16-20.



Steve

[RRMERLIN7]

Steve Congrads!!! I was around the Strega Pits all week but never talked to you since you were wrenching away, With the first lap at 496, and with Tiger Pulling the Power back after taking to lead, do you think the engine could have taking Tiger to a 500Mph Lap with the power up and engine holding together ??? and One more Question, How much does the Chute help the first lap or does it at all ??

BTW I was in the winners Circle.....pretty Close to Tiger... Looked like a VERY!!!!! Happy Camper!

Congrads TEAM STREGA.....


REPEAT '09!!!

[SteveO]

It is very possible Strega could do a 500 mph run, but there are a lot of factors that go into play. Dago had their stuff together when they did it, you'll notice no on has done it since. I think we have a ways to go to do it. But considering the fuel load, as well as other fluids, it was possible. The engine was healthy, even when we checked everything Monday things were clean, we could've gone racing another day.

The chute helps out a lot. As far as separation of the field, and starting the race, there is not a more efficient way. It allows the airplanes to get up speed safely with eachother so they are all on the same page before they are cut loose. The airplanes however tend to get their top speeds in the lap following the pace lap.

Steve

[wardog]

Hey Stevo,
Do you have to have your FAST certificate to race? I've heard off/on over the years that T6 and Unlimited class require or will soon require FAST certification. I've never seen you fly formation (until last weekend), but that doesn't mean much
We really enjoyed watching you race and like everyone else in CNO we're proud of you and all you've accomplished.
See ya around the airport!!!!
Cindy

[SteveO]

Hey Cindy,

As far as the Unlimited Class is concerned, you do not need a formation card to race, I cannot speak for the T-6 Class. Thanks a lot, it was fun seeing you up there, we'll see you at Chino this weekend,

Steve

[fotohayden]

Hi Steve, Many thanks for the inside the line on what goes on behind the scenes to keep a thoroughbred like strega going for a week. Your blog has affirmed my determination to make to reno from NZ...

[RRMERLIN7]

Stevo, would you please Call up Tiger and Tell Him to update Strega's Website!!!! LOL

Has it sunk it yet ??? Team Strega won RENO 2008!!!! Go Race 7!!

[KAHNZILLA]

Very exciting and fun year, congratulations to TEAM STREGA, KC

[SteveO]

The website is, well, sub par to say the least. We actually do not run the site, someone outside does it for us, but I do not know who. I wish they'd get on it, I have checked for the last couple of years and always stays the same, I share your disdain.

I think it is finally just settling in that we won, my friend Joel, and I, go back and forth at work with Sea Fury jokes, or mustang jokes, but I've got a little more ammunition than he does this year, so we have fun doing that. That Monday after the race it sure didn't feel like we had won. We didn't launch Tiger out until 2, and we spent 5.5 hours loading our trailer, so we were the last ones on the ramp, which was almost empty now, and the sun was just setting.

It does make a difference on the drive home though, knowing we'd won, instead of the results of the past several years, the drive is definitely better.

[wardog]

well...I know who USED to do the Strega site
if they want some short-term help getting it updated, have them contact me. I don't do web stuff much anymore, but for Team Strega, I'm happy to make an exception!!!

[F1Race99]

Congrats Steveo on your first Reno as a racer, this sport really needs young, new talent like yourself! Looking forward to seeing you next year in something REALLY fast!

[MikeS]

SteveO - awesome first year. I've got a couple of pics of you in the pits too - hope you like (you were pretty busy, so I left you alone). I'm looking forward to following your future races! Enjoy! We look forward to sharing future successes with you!

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[SteveO]

Thanks John and Mike. I really had a great time this year, I learned a lot, and I couldn't be happier for Tiger, LD, or Mike Nixon. They all had a great year too.

My apologies for being so busy in the pit Mike, I usually get sucked into doing something until the airplane is ready to fly, its hard to put down the wrench ore screwdriver; actually, I think thats one of the things I like best about being involved with Strega and the races, is working on everything. All the late nights and early mornings is something I look forward to each year, (yea I know I am crazy, who looks forward to going to sleep at 2 and waking up at 4:30) they are great experiences.

I get joked with quite a bit because I'll usually skip meals, more so in the past than now, in order to keep working, its addicting. Flying the airplane really is a dream come true, and I enjoy the hell out of it, but I would never give up working on that airplane, it feels like I am connected into its bloodline, keeping the heart pumping, it is something I wouldn't trade out for. So look for me in the pits next year, still wearing coveralls, hopefully with grease and oil on them, as well as in the cockpit, hopefully, maybe, we'll see, I don't want to jinx myself. But I'll still be working...

Reason for edit: Steven Hinton Sr. Flying ASB T-33

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[MikeS]

No need to apologize Steve - I completely understand. It was a pleasure seeing the team enjoy success this year. It seemed overdue.

[Deb Mitchell]

ASB is honored to have been behind the scenes to capture the personal moments of Steve Hinton Jr's first air race. Being there with his Dad made it all the more special. The Hinton's have a flying legacy at Reno that is spectacular. Hope you enjoy! Shipley

http://www.airshowbuzz.com/videos/view.php...;autoplay=false

Our thanks to Tyson for the great photo of Steven.

[ak9er57]

Steve,
Thanks again for the great blog. I hope you keep adding to it over the next year with updates on Strega and your plans.
marc
Anchorage,AK