R2-D2 Racing Jet Class At Reno 2013 - Gets 2nd Place! (CoolPix 2Fer)

(click pic for hi-res)  Rick Vandam and R2-D2 racing in the Gold Jet race on Sunday

 Normally I should show you some of the great pix I captured of Pete Zaccagnino in the L-29 'Just Lucky' winning the Gold Jet Class race on last Sunday at Reno, and I will before long, but my goal for this race was to fetch up some good images of R2-D2 in the back seat with Rick Vandam in the L-39 'American Spirit'. Well, I think these two CoolPix here show I did a pretty good job! Plus, since I just drove 2,100 miles back from Reno (at a rather leisurely 47 hours total elapsed time compared to the 35 hours going west), I figure I can show you whatever pix I want!

(Jet Class Gold race results from Sunday)

 Rick Vandam and R2-D2 are going a tad over 500mph in this pic and at somewhere around 100 feet off the ground! Wow, it's amazing stuff to see from this close to be sure. I was out at pylon 2 for the Sunday afternoon races which included the Gold race for the T-6 Class, the Sport Class, the Jets, and the Unlimiteds. Even better, I was using a demo camera and lens from Nikon who is both a sponsor of Reno and provides a support-team from Nikon Professional Services during the event, just like they do at Oshkosh these days. They take care of Nikon shooters thru the week as well as attempt to convert others... I'm one of the 'others' but after using a Nikon D7100 with an 80-400 zoom lens, I'm quickly re-thinking my camera equipment future. Thanx Nikon for the excellent gear to be able to get pix like these two and the one of Steven Hinton winning Gold Unlimited in Voodoo.

 (click pic for hi-res) Cropped in on the same pix for a closer look at Rick and R2-D2!

 I've got loads more Reno 2013 pix to share once I recover from white-line-fever, but I'll say right now that the 50th anniversary of the National Championship Air Races at Reno Stead Airport were safe, exciting, and fantastic... can't wait til next year!

Comments

[seerjfly]

Great stuff, Martt ! All of it ! Thanks for what you do.